Hooked on a Feeling Vol 1: The Guardians of the Galaxy
by Quill Sparkle
Summary: Peyton Quill, adoptive daughter of Yondu Udonta, teams up with Gamora the deadly assassin, kicking-ass and taking names pair Rocket and Groot, and sweet and lovable but killer Drax the Destroyer team up to save the galaxy with friends and enemies that become allies. Retelling of GotG Vol 1 and GOTG Vol. 2
1. Prologue: Earth, 1988

**Summary:** Peyton Jane Quill has a tough life. Her mother is dead and she was harshly raised by Yondu Udonta, the only father she's ever known. However, Peyton finds an orb that could be worth more than she is ever dealing with. Becoming friends with a green-skinned man, a talking tree and a talking raccoon and a maniac who wishes to kill Gamora wasn't part of her plan. They're just teaming up to save the Galaxy from an evil Kree wishing to destroy an entire planet.

Slow burn Fem!Peter Quill x Gamora. If this isn't your taste in interest, then feel free to cease reading it. Also, this story has Peyton being seventeen and Gamora nineteen, so they're starting as teenagers and this film takes place in 1999 as opposed to 2014.

 **Prologue: Earth...1988...**

Six-year-old Peyton Jane Quill sat in the dimmed hallways of the hospital, listening to the awesome Mix Tape she and her mother made together. Peyton just remembered her and her mom, Meredith, lay in fields and listen to all the music they liked. Right now, she listened to "I'm Not in Love" by 10cc

"Peyton, your mom wants to speak with you," he said. However, Peyton didn't answer anything.

"Come on, Peyton, take off those damn things off," Mr. Quill said.

Peyton stopped the "Awesome Mix" tape and took off her headphones while also putting her Sony Walkman back in her purple bag and followed her grandfather to be with her mother on her final moments. When Peyton entered the room, everyone went silent. She looked at her grandmother, who was holding Meredith's hand, and gave Peyton sympathetic looks, as did Peyton's uncle. She came to her mother's side with Mr. Quill behind her.

"Have you been fighting with other children again, baby?" Meredith asked her child.

Peyton said nothing and just shrugged.

"Peyton..."

"They killed a little frog that ain't done nothin'. Smashed it with a stick." Peyton answered shyly. Her mother smiled.

"You are so like your mommy," Meredith said with a smile. "with a bit of your father in you. "Your father's going to love you, oh Peyton, your father was an angel, composed of pure light..."

"Mer? You got a present for Peyton, don't you?" Mr. Quill asked her.

"Of course. There," Meredith said weakly. She pointed to the wrapped up present. Peyton dared not to look at it. Her grandfather placed it in her small bag.

"You open it up when I'm gone, okay? Your grandpa is gonna take such good care of you. At least until your daddy comes back to get you."

Peyton heard the sounds of how much she had left with her mother. Meredith's time was running out of time.

"Peyton, take my hand," Meredith urged her daughter. However, Peyton refused to look her mother in the eye.

"Pey, come on," Mr. Quill urged his granddaughter. Peyton didn't look her mother in the eye.

"Take my hand," Meredith urged again. Peyton watched her mother die right in front of her. She looked and saw the machine went straight.

"Mom! No, mom!" Peyton shouted.

She suddenly felt her grandfather grab her around her waist and carry Peyton out of the room.

"No, Mom! No! No!" she continued screaming, trying to get to her late mother.

"You've got to stay here. Please." Mr. Quill begged his granddaughter. "Okay?"

Peyton ran out the doors of the hospitals and collapsed in the middle of the fields. Suddenly, a flash of light came over Peyton as the light swirled around her and the tractor beam brought her in.

"MOM!" Peyton shouted for her mother one final time.

The next thing she knew, Peyton was on board surrounded by many men wearing red leather jackets that were longer to their heels. She was scared out of her depths, looking at her surroundings. She didn't make one move, not even the blue-skinned Centaurian Yondu Udonta approached her.

"Please, don't hurt me," Peyton said, trying to shield herself. She was only six years old, meaning she'd be terrified easily. Yondu looked at the girl strangely, noticing that she was indeed a mini version of her mother. His first-mate, Kraglin Obfonteri looked at the girl named Peyton. Yondu eyed the girl carefully.

"Do you have a name, kid?" Yondu asked.

"Peyton Jane Quill," she answered out of her depth.

Kraglin, meanwhile wasn't so sure that they should give Peyton to the man they were hired to get her to. What if something tragic would happen to Peyton if they gave her away to their boss?

"Captain," Kraglin whispered in Yondu's ear. "You know what he will do to her if he finds out."

Yondu knew that if they delivered this girl to her father, it would mean certain death for her. For some reason, Yondu felt close to this little girl, like she was meant to do something. He approached the "cargo".

"Welcome to the Ravengers, girlie," said Yondu Udonta.

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	2. Chapter 1: Morag and the Orb

**A/N: Just so you know, Peyton and Yondu are going to have a closer relationship, as in their going ot be a bit more open of them being parent and child.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Guardians of the Galaxy**

 **Chapter 1: Morag and the Orb**

 _Eleven years later..._ _1999_

Peyton Quill wore her helmet that she had been practically wearing since she was eleven years old and now went by the alias "Star Lady" because of her mother's old nickname for her. She took out her old Sony Walkman while also taking her orange headphones. She placed them on her head as she heard the beats of "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone. She danced along with the Peyton made her way to where the orb was pinpointed at. She went towards the orb and used a device to grab it out of its protective space. It went into her hand and turned to see three men pointing their guns at the seventeen year old girl.

"Drop it! Now!" shouted the dark skinned man, Korath the Pursuer.

"Hey, cool, man. No problem," Peyton said, dropping it. "No problem at all."

Korath grabbed onto the orb as Peyton was flanked by Korath's henchmen with their guns pointing at her.

"How do you know about this?" Korath asked, holding up the orb.

"I don't even know what that is," Peyton lied. "I'm just a junker, man. I was just...just checking stuff out."

"You don't look like a junker," Korath said. "You're wearing Ravager garb!"

"This is just an outfit, man," she said. In fact, her jacket was hip length and wasn't reaching her healed boots like her family members. Peyton felt a poke from one of the men pointing their guns at her. "Ninja Turtle, you better stop poking me."

"What is your name?!"

"My name is Peyton Quill-Udonta, okay?" Peyton said, emphasizing on her adoptive last name. "Dude, chill out."

"Move!" Korath shouted.

"Why?"

"Ronan may have questions for you."

"Hey, you know what? There's another name you might know me by: Star-Lady," Peyton said.

"Who?" Korath asked curiously.

"Star-Lady, man. Legendary outlaw." she looked at her captors. "Guys?"

"Move!" Korath shouted.

"Oh, forget this" Peyton said.

She had enough. She took out her guns and started shooting at the men who held her captive. She had been able to hit Korath before taking the orb and putting it in her jacket. Peyton turned on her rocket boots and flew to her ship, which she called the Milano after her favorite actress, Alyssa Milano. Before her ship could ever be hit, Peyton laughed as she made her way out of the planet, far away from the lunatics. Later, Peyton turned on her radio and placed her "Awesome Mix Vol. 1" tape in it. She played Go all the Way" by the Raspberries.

"Peyton," Yondu said. Peyton cringed at his voice. She had accidentally turned on Yondu's call and turned to face him.

"Oh, hey Dad," the seventeen-year-old girl said. For the past eleven years, Yondu raised Peyton as his daughter. And in those past eleven years, after a year of living with her family, Peyton began calling Yondu "Dad".

"I'm here on Morag," Yondu said. "Ain't no Orb, ain't no you..."

"Well, I was in the neighborhood," Peyton answered. "I thought I'd save you the hassle."

"Well, where are you at now, girl?"

"I feel really bad about this, Dad, but I'm not gonna tell you that," Peyton answered.

"I slaved putting this deal together..." Yondu was yelling at her.

"Slaved? Making a few calls is "slaved"?"

"And now you're gonna rip me off!"

"I mean, really?"

"We do not do that to each other. We're Ravagers, we got a code."

"Yeah, and that code is 'steal from everybody.'

"When I picked you up on Terra, these boys of mine wanted to eat you," Yondu said. Peyton groaned. She heard this story several times. "They ain't never tasted any Terran before. I stopped 'em. You're alive because of me! I swear, kid, when I find you, you're going to be in major trouble. I will make sure you never leave my sight again. I will..."

Peyton got annoyed by her adoptive dad, so she turned off her transmitter, not caring where this would be going.

"Put a bounty on her! Forty K," yondu shouted to Kraglin. "I want her back alive."

"Yeah, Cap." Kraglin said.

"I told you when you picked that kid up, you should have delivered her like we was hired to do!" shouted Horuz. " She was cargo! But no. she had to become your adoptive daughter.

"Don't you worry about Miss Quill-Udonta. She's my daughter, and my responsibility, not yours. As soon as we get her back here, I'm gonna see her punishment myself. What we do need to worry about, is who else out there wants that orb."

* * *

"They call me "terrorist," "radical," "zealot," because I obey the ancient laws of my people, the Kree, and punish those who do not," said a very cold voice to a captive Xandarian. This voice came from the evil Kree, Ronan the Accuser. He had always hated the Xandarian race because they had took the life of his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. "Because I do not forgive your people for taking the life of my father, and his father, and his father before him. A thousand years of war between us will not be forgotten!"

"You can't do this!" the Xandarian Prisoner shouted. "Our government signed a peace treaty."

"My government knows no shame," Ronan said. "You Xandarians and your culture are a disease."

"You will never rule Xandar." sneered the prisoner.

"No. I will cure it!" shouted Ronan and killed the prisoner with his hammer.

"Ronan, Korath has returned," Nebula, a nearby person and daughter of Thanos, said.

 **"** Master, she is a thief, an outlaw who calls herself Star-Lady," Korath told his mentor.

"Star-Lady?" Ronan asked.

"Yes, she was approximately sixteen or seventeen years old, blonde hair and green eyes. We have discovered she has an agreement to retrieve the orb for an intermediary known as The Broker."

"I promised Thanos I would retrieve the orb for him," Ronan said. "Only then will he destroy Xandar for me. Nebula, go to Xandar and get me the orb.

"It will be my honor," Nebula said, stepping up.

However, a nineteen year old Zehoberei, the last of her kind stepped up against her older sister. Her name was Gamora, and you could say she was at least seven inches taller than Peyton. However, Gamora couldn't let Nebula carry out a plan like this. If Nebula failed, then that meant something bad would happen to her. Well, that and something else.

"It will be your doom," Gamora said. "If this happens again, you'll be facing our father without his prize."

"I'm a daughter of Thanos, just like you," the twenty year old said.

"But I know Xandar." Gamora said.

"Ronan has already decreed that I..." Nebula began.

"Do not speak for me," Ronan snapped. "You will not fail."

"Have I ever?" Gamora asked.


	3. Chapter 2: Xandar

**Chapter 2 - Xandar**

Xandar was the home of the Xandarians, a race similar to that of humans. It was, in fact, the capital of the Nova Empire. However, they were indeed the enemies of the Kree Empire after years of battling. Because of the peace treaty, things had not been going well on Xandar. The future seemed bleak because of all the things that Ronan the Accuser and Thanos have done. However, that is not the issue right now. Right now, both a raccoon-like and tree like creatures stood looking for someone to hunt down. However, he loved making fun of the inhabitants of this planet.

"Xandarians," said the Racoon named Rocket. "What a bunch of losers. All of them in a big hurry to get from something stupid to nothing at all. Pathetic. All of them in a big hurry to get from something stupid, to nothing at all. Pathetic."

He looked at a man with a bad haircut.

"Look at this guy!" Rocket said. "Can you believe they call us criminals, when he's assaulting us with that haircut?"

Rocket looked away from the Xandarian with a bad haircut and to another victim.

"What is this thing?" Rocket asked.

He was looking at a child holding hands with his father, helping his son down the steps.

"Look how it thinks it's so cool. It's not cool to get help! Walk by yourself, you little gargoyle."

He looked to find an old man hooking up with a young woman.

"Look at Mr. Smiles over here," Rocket said. "Where's your wife, old man? What a class-A pervert."

He laughed loud.

"Right, Groot?" Rocket asked his partner. However, he didn't answer. "Groot?"

He looked to see Groot drinking from the water fountain.

"Don't drink fountain water, you idiot. That's disgusting!" Rocket said.

Groot shook his head, pretending he never drank from it.

"Yes, you did. I just saw you doing it. Why are you lying?"

Suddenly, his device began glowing and he looked to see a sixteen (maybe seventeen) year-old girl standing there, wearing some kind of listening device. She had put it in her pocket to keep things from being suspicious as well as taking the headphones off.

"Oh, well, well, if it isn't the daughter of the Ravenger leader himself," said Rocket. "Looks like we got one. Okay, kid, how bad does someone wanna find you?"

He looked and saw her name as "Peyton Jane Quill" with a 40,000-unit bounty on her head issued by her own father.

"40,000 units? For a man's own daughter?" Rocket said. "Well then, guess we've got one. Do you hear that Groot? We're going to be rich."

He looked and saw that Groot was still drinking from the water fountain.

* * *

Peyton made her way to the Broker's warehouse. She entered to see the man fixing one of his telescopes. However, the Broker didn't say anything to her but give Peyton curious looks.

"Miss Quill," the Broker said.

Sometimes people referred to her as Quill whenever they didn't want to confuse her with Yondu, but in the business world, people did refer to her as "Miss Quill."

"Broker. The orb," Peyton said. She showed the orb and placed it on the counter. "As commissioned."

"Where's Yondu?" Broker asked curiously.

"Well, my dad wanted to be here, but he sends his love," Peyton said. "And told me to tell you, that you got the best eyebrows in the business."

He rolled his eyes. Peyton handed Broker the orb, waiting for an answer.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's my policy never to discuss my clients, or their needs."

"Yeah, well, I almost died getting it for you."

"An occupational hazard, I'm sure, in your line of work."

"Some machine-headed freak, working for a dude named Ronan.

"Ronan? I'm sorry, Miss Quill, I truly am. But I want no part of this transaction if Ronan is involved."

He gave her the orb and began pushing her towards the door. Peyton wanted to know who this Ronan guy was. She turned around.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," she said. "Who's Ronan?"

"A Kree fanatic, outraged by the peace treaty, who will not rest until Xandarian culture, my culture, is wiped from existence! He's someone whose bad side I'd rather not be on. If I were you, Miss Quill, I'd put that Orb back where you found it before you yourself end up just like the other children."

"What do you mean the other children?" Peyton asked. "I'm seventeen.

"Yes, but still. Unless you want to end up like millions of others of Ronan's victims, I suggest you put it back where you came from and go home."

"What? Do you want to be on my bad side?" Peyton said.

"Farewell, Miss Quill," Broker said and shut the door behind Peyton. She was banging on the door.

"Oh, come on, man," Peyton said. "Hey, we had a deal, bro!"

The seventeen-year-old girl just groaned and turned to see a green alien girl who was about two years older than her standing there and leaning up against the wall. The young green-skinned woman eyed the human girl curiously with her brown eyes.

"What happened?" the nineteen-year-old girl asked.

"Uh...this guy just backed out of a deal on me," Peyton answered. "If there's one thing I hate, it's a man without integrity. Peter Quill. People call me Star-Lady."

"You have the bearing of a strong woman, one day, Miss Quill," Gamora said.

"Well, you know, I wouldn't say that," Peyton told her, playing around with the orb. "People say it about me, all the time, but it's not something I would ever say about myself."

"Well, I'm sorry about that," said Gamora. The nineteen-year-old girl kicked the orb out of Peyton's hand and ran off with the orb in her hand.

"Hey!" Peyton shouted at her enemy.

She took her electric rope and threw it at the Zehoberei. It wrapped around her feet as Peyton went to get the Orb. She and the Gamora girl began fighting over the took her knife and was hovering over Peyton. Gamora looked at Peyton curiously, as if there was something familiar about her. She just couldn't kill an innocent child who had to be around fifteen or sixteen years old. Gamora couldn't stare at Peyton for long for Rocket was attacking Gamora. Peyton was laying there, shocked at the sight of it all.

"Put her in the bag! Put her in the bag!" Rocket shouted, referring to Peyton. However, Rocket extended his branches all the way over in Gamora's and Rocket's direction. "No not this her, that her."

Peyton realized they were talking about her as well. She took her orb and then ran fast as Gamora, Groot, and Rocket struggled with each other.

Gamora quickly ran and threatened Peyton with Godslayer.

"Look, I don't want to hurt you kid," Gamora said, "but I need that orb."

'Never!" Peyton said, holding the orb in a protective grasp. She began attacking Gamora again and again, but the Zehoberei's reflexes were faster as Gamora pinned the girl down by her wrists

"Foolish girl," Gamora said, still threatening with her sword, "you should already learn!"

"I don't learn, Greenie" Peyton said. "One of my issues."

She took a small rocket launcher, planting it on Gamora's back and activated it. Peyton was relieved. She took the orb and held it through her victory. She felt something over her head, but Peyton dodged it. However, she screamed and fell on her back as a tall tree attempted to capture her. Groot stopped all of the sudden and looked, realizing how young Peyton really was.

"I am Groot," said the tree.

"What do you mean you won't do it?" Rocket said.

"I am Groot," said the creature.

"So, what if she's seventeen years old? Do it without the sack!" Rocket said. However, this wasn't what Groot meant.

"Whoa, whoa, can't we work something out?" Peyton asked.

He grabbed onto the girl rather reluctantly, slinging her over its shoulder.

"Quit sulking, you idiot," Rocket said, ignoring Peyton's protests. "You're supposed to be a professional."

"Hey! Let me go! Put me down you cursed animal!" shouted Peyton.

"I'd quiet yourself if I were you, blondie," Rocket sneered at her. He stopped and saw Gamora approaching them. "You gotta be kidding me."

Gamora went past Rocket and took her sword, chopping off Groot's arms. Peyton screamed as she was dropped but gave another scream when she saw Gamora trying to get at her with her hands. She wasn't going to let some nineteen-year-old Zehoberei show her up by one. Peyton took the orb and began running with the crowd watching this fight. However, unknown to her, Rocket was pulling out a gun.

"I really don't want to do this to the kid," Rocket told Groot, "but we're taking her back to her father whether the kid wants it or not."

He took the blaster and shot it at Peyton. The poor girl fell down with the Orb falling from her hand after feeling the electric shock run through Peyton's veins. Rocket looked at Groot.

"It'll grow back, you d'ast idiot," Rocket said. "Quit whining."

Suddenly, they were captured by golden tractor beams, trapping an unconscious Gamora, Rocket and Groot.

"Subject 89P13, drop your weapon," said the head officer.

"Crap," Rocket said and dropped his gun.

"By the authority of the Nova Corps, you are under arrest for endangerment to life and the destruction of property," said the head arresting officer.

Peyton came to a few minutes later, flanked by two officers. However, they weren't that rough on her like the others, mostly because she was only a minor after all. When they helped Peyton up, she noticed the familiar face of Rhomman Dey.

"Dey," Peyton said with a smile. He smiled back at her.

"Hey! If it isn't Star-Princess," he said.

"Star-Lady," Peyton corrected him.

"Sorry, 'Lady'," said Dey. He looked at his partner. "I picked this gal up a while back for petty theft. She's got a code name."

"Come on, man. It's a...It's an outlaw name," Peyton said. "My dad picked it out for me."

"Just relax, kid," Dey told her. "It's cool to have a code name. It's not that weird."


	4. Chapter 3: The Kyln

**Chapter 3: The Kyln**

Further away from the arresting area, Nova Prime Irani Rael was arguing with the Kree Imperial Ambassador.

"Ronan is destroying Xandarian outposts throughout the galaxy!" shouted the voice of Nova Prime. "I should think that would call for some slight response on the part of the Kree."

"We signed your peace treaty, Nova Prime," the Kree Ambassador said. "What more do you want?"

"At least a statement from the Kree Empire saying that they condemn his actions," Irani Rael pointed out. "He is slaughtering children. Families."

"That is your business. Now, I have other matters to attend to," the Kree ambassador said. He shut off his transmitter to go back to his "business. "

"Prick," Rael muttered in anger.

"Well, some good news," said Denarian Saal. "Looks like we've apprehended one of Ronan's compatriots."

"Gamora," Dey introduced them to the nineteen-year-old girl, who stood there bored but with murderous glares. "Nineteen years old, and surgically modified and trained as a living weapon. The adopted daughter of the Mad Titan, Thanos. Recently, Thanos lent her and her sister Nebula out to Ronan, which leads us to believe that Thanos and Ronan are working together."

He moved on to Rocket, who was really named Subject 89p13.

"Subject 89P13. Calls itself 'Rocket.' The result of illegal genetic and cybernetic experiments on a lower life form."

"What the hell?" Saal said on the sight of Groot, whose arms were growing back. He was indeed looking curiously at the men.

"They call it Groot," Dey explained. "A humanoid plant that's been travelling recently as 89P13's personal houseplant/muscle."

He had up Peyton next.

"Peyton Jane Quill, age seventeen and from Terra," Dey explained. "Raised from youth by a band of mercenaries called the Ravagers, led by her father, Yondu Udonta."

Peyton was pretending to project a movie, but in reality, was bringing up her middle-finger.

"I'm sorry." Peyton said. "I didn't know how this machine worked.

What a bunch of brats and a-holes," Saal said. "Transport all four to the Kyln."

"I guess most of Nova Corps wanna uphold the laws, but these ones here, they're corrupt and cruel. But, hey, that's not my problem. I ain't gonna be here long," Rocket said. Peyton got really annoyed with Rocket and wanted to slug the raccoon. "I've escaped twenty-two prisons, this one's no different. You're lucky the girl showed up, kid, because otherwise, me and Groot would be collecting that bounty right now, and who knows what your father does to you."

"Well, my dad's had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years. He won't be brought down by a tree and a talking raccoon, and neither will I."

"What's a raccoon?" Rocket asked.

"What's a raccoon?" Peyton repeated. "It's what you are, stupid."

"Ain't no thing like me, except me," Rocket said.

"So, this orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vibe. What is it?" Peyton asked.

"I am Groot." Groot answered.

"So what? What's the orb?" Peyton asked again.

"I have no words for an honorless thief, especially to a dumb kid like you," Gamora said.

"I'm only two years younger than you," Peyton said.

"Really, and how old are you?" Gamora asked.

"Just turned seventeen," Peyton answered.

"Then that means you're still a stupid kid," Gamora said, for she knew that she was going to be twenty in two months. "Still, I have no words for you're honorless face."

"Pretty high and mighty coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac," Rocket said. Gamora looked at him surprised.

"Yeah, I know who you are," Rockt said. "Anyone who's anyone knows who you are."

"Yeah, we know who you are," Peyton said. She asked Groot unsure. "Who is she?"

"I am Groot," Groot answered.

"Yeah, you said that already," Peyton said.

"I wasn't retrieving the orb for Ronan, I was betraying him," Gamora said. As she spoke, Rocket watched as the guard used the remote inside him to unlock a door. "I had an agreement to sell it to a third party."

"I am Groot," Groot said. The door opened up.

"Well, that's just as fascinating as the first eighty-nine times you told me that," Peyton said. She looked in front of her to Rocket. "What is wrong with Giving Tree, here?"

"Well, he don't know talking good like me and you," Rocket said. "So his vocabulistics is limited to 'l' and 'am' and 'Groot.' Exclusively in that order."

They were shoved into a massive area filled with other prisoners. Peyton still felt numb from the taser prints that blue maniac had shocked her with. When they entered the prison, the prisoners continued throwing stuff at the new arrivals. However, they were mostly throwing their things at Gamora. Peyton looked at Rocket curiously at what these men were doing to Gamora.

"What is..." Peyton began.

"It's like I said, she's got a rep, kid," Rocket answered. "A lot of prisoners here have lost their families to Ronan and his goons. She'll last a day, tops."

"The guards will protect her, right?" Peyton asked.

"They're here to stop us from getting out," Rocket said. "They don't care what we do to each other inside."

"Whatever nightmares the future holds, are dreams compared to what's behind me," Gamora said, causing Peyton to give her a confused look. She continued, but stopped when a monstrous inmate approached her.

"Check out the new meat. I'm gonna slather you up in Gunavian jelly, and go to town..." the inmate said.

Groot did not like that this inmate was going all over Peyton, for she was only seventeen years old. He stuck his fingers up the man's nostril.

"Let's make something clear. This one here is our booty!" Rocket shouted, pointing at Peyton. "You wanna get to the kid, you go through us! Or, more accurately, we go through you."

Groot put the prisoner down.

"I'm with them," Peyton said happily and went to follow the two men.


	5. Chapter 4: An Uneasy Alliance

Chapter 4

Peyton and Gamora were slammed into the same cell, but neither girl said anything to each other. They just sat there in silence, not noticing one man in particular was giving Gamora a death glare. Later that night, Peyton was sleeping peacefully on the floor (she had let Gamora take the only bed. However, Peyton woke up at the sound of the inmates breaking into their cell. Peyton shot out of her sleeping spot and froze when a group of prisoners grabbed onto Gamora. Peyton didn't think twice of moving as they had a knife to the girl's throat. One man in particular had been approaching her, ready to take her away as well, grabbed onto Peyton

"Wait, what about this one?" said one of the inmates holding onto Peyton.

"Nay, we don't need that girl," said one prisoner, Dar, presumably the leader. "Leave her here. She's Yondu Udonta's daughter, not one of Ronan's associates."

The prisoner holding onto Peyton threw her back down on her bed. Peyton got back up and watched as they dragged her to a guard that was on duty.

"Take her down to the showers," the guard said. "It'll be easier to clean up the blood down there."

Peyton got out of her seat and walked her way over to where they were leading Gamora. However, she suddenly felt Groot's vines swarm around her midsection.

"Oh, come on," Peyton said, struggling with Groot. "Can't you see that the guards are going to kill her?"

Groot looked at her curiously just as Rocket came in. He was impressed that the girl tried to get away. Peyton may have been fast, but Groot and Rocket were faster.

"Nice try, kid," Rocket said. "Did you really think that just because we were in different cells meant I wasn't keeping an eye on you."

"Listen, Rocket," Peyton said. "The prisoners are going to kill Gamora. I have to do something before they do something to her."

Groot without another word released Peyton. She gave him a quick "thank you" and ran off to follow the prisoners.

"You idiot! Why'd you do that for?!" he yelled at Groot. "Quill! Get back here kid!"

He ran following her.

Line division

Down in the showers, Gamora found herself with a knife against her throat. The men holding her down took pleasure in doing this.

"Gamora, consider this a death sentence for your crimes against the galaxy," he said, about to kill her.

"You dare?" shouted a very angry voice. The prisoners looked, but stopped at the sight of the owner's voice, all unaware that Peyton and Rocket were followed close behind. "You know who I am, yes?"

"You're Drax, The Destroyer," Dar answered, Peyton looking at him curiously.

"Quill!" Rocket said, and was tugging on the girl's pantleg.

"And you know why they call me this?" Drax asked.

"You slayed dozens of Ronan's minions," Dar answered.

"Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria," Drax said. "He slaughtered them where they stood. And he laughed!"

"Peyton!" Rocket said, calling her by her first name didn't even get her attention.

"Her life is not yours to take," Drax said. "He killed my family, I shall kill one of his in return."

"Of course, Drax. Here, I…" Dar said, handing Drax his knife.

However, with Gamora's quick reflexes she kicked the knife out of the inmates' hands. She had them both up against Moloka and Drax, but didn't make a move to kill them. Peyton went to confront them.

"Quill! What are you doing?" Rocket said.

I'm no family to Ronan or Thanos," she snapped. She didn't refrain from killing them, but she dropped them. "I'm your only hope at stopping him."

"Woman, your words mean nothing to me!" Drax shouted and was about to choke her.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Hey!" Peyton shouted.

"Oh, crap," Rocket muttered to himself. He wouldn't doubt that if he ever had Peyton returned to her family harmed, then he and Groot would be harmed themselves. The bounty said "alive", not "dead or alive". Peyton put both hands up.

"You know, if killing Ronan is truly your sole purpose," said Peyton. "I don't think this is the best way to go about it."

"Are you not the child this wench attempted to kill?"

"One I'm not a child, and two, she is not the first woman to try to kill me and my dad," Peyton said. She showed her scars.

"Kook, this is from a Rajak girl. Stabbed me with a fork while trying to stab my dad. Didn't like Yondu skipping out on her at sunrise." She showed one near her neck.

"I got, right here, a Kree girl tried to rip out my dad's thorax, but didn't notice it was me," Peyton said. She caught my dad with this skinny little A'askavariian who worked in Nova Records. He was trying to get information. You ever see an A'askavariian? They have tentacles and needles for teeth. If you think my father's seriously interested in that, then... "

She stopped when Drax gave her a murderous glance.

"You don't care. But here's the point," said Peyton. "She betrayed Ronan, he's coming back for her. And when he does, that's when you…"

She gestured with her finger by sliding it across her neck

"Why would I put my finger on his throat?" Drax asked.

"What?" Peyton asked confused. Then she noticed what he was referring to. "Oh, this is a symbol. This is a symbol for you slicing his throat."

"I would not slice his throat," Drax said. "I would cut his head clean off."

"It's a general expression for you killing somebody," Peyton said. "What I'm saying is, you want to keep her alive. Don't do his work for him."

Peyton waited for him to make a response. Drax looked at the young Zehoberei girl and then let her go. Gamora was coughing at the point of being released.

"I like your knife. I'm keeping it," Drax said. He walked away with Dar muttering on how that was his favorite knife. Peyton and Gamora made their way to their cell with Rocket following.

"Listen! I could care less whether you live or whether you die," Peyton told the older woman.

"Then why stop the big guy?" Gamora asked, looking at the human.

"Simple. You know where to sell my orb," Peyton said.

"How are we gonna sell it when we and it are still here?" Gamora asked.

"My friend Rocket, here, has escaped twenty-two prisons," Peyton answered. They looked down at the raccoon who was leaned up against the railing.

"Oh, we're getting out." Rocket said and looked at Peyton. "And then we're headed straight to your father to retrieve your bounty."

"How much was your buyer willing to pay you for my orb?" Peyton asked, ignoring the raccoon.

"Four billion units," Gamora answered.

"What?!" Rocket shouted.

"Holy shit." Peyton said.

"That orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan," Gamora said. "If you free us, I'll lead you to the buyer directly and I'll split the profit between the three of us."

"I am Groot." said Groot behind Peyton, who was scared out of her depths when she saw Groot standing there.

"Four of us," Rocket said. He glared at Groot, who returned the glare. "Away for the danger, here for the money, as per frickin' usual."

Groot gave him a glare.


	6. Chapter 5: Escape – Part 1

**A/N: Oh, I forgot to note, that the characters in this fanfiction are** _ **younger**_ **than their original counterparts. However, Groot can live up to thousands of years old and Rocket has the lifespan of a normal human in this fanfiction and Drax still was a father and a husband to his wife and daughter.**

 **Chapter 5: Escape – Part 1**

"You have been betrayed, Ronan," the other said. Aboard the Dark Aster, the Other, a servant of the Lord Thanos, was talking to Ronan via a computer screen.

"We know only that she has been captured," Ronan said. "Gamora may yet recover the orb."

"No! Our sources within the Kyln say Gamora has her own plans for the orb," the Other said. "Your partnership with Thanos is at risk. Thanos requires your presence. Now!"

Sanctuary, home of Thanos...

"With all due respect, Thanos, your daughter made this mess," said Ronan, "and yet you summon me."

"I would lower my voice, Accuser," the Other warned him.

"First, she lost a battle with some primitive."

"Thanos put Gamora under your charge."

"Then she was apprehended by the Nova Corps."

"You are the one here with nothing to show for it."

"Your sources say that she meant to betray us the whole time!"

"Lower your tone! I may be your... "

Ronan took his hammer and blasted out an energy towards the Other, twisting him around. causing an immediate death.

"I only ask that you take this matter seriously," Ronan said to a hovering, floating chair. The person sitting on the chair was revealed to be Thanos the Mad-Titan himself. He turned around.

"The only matter I do not take seriously, boy, is you," Thanos said. "Your politics bore me. Your demeanor is that of a pouty child. And, apparently, you alienated my favorite daughter, Gamora. I shall honor our agreement, Kree, if you bring me the orb. But return to me again empty handed, and I will bathe the starways in your blood."

"Thanks, Dad. Sounds fair," Nebula said to her father. She got up to Ronan. "This is one fight you won't win. Let's head to the Kyln."

Nebula and Ronan made their exit as Thanos let out an evil smirk break out on his face.

 **LINE DIVISION**

"If we're gonna get out of here, we're gonna need to get into that watchtower," Rocket explained to them. The group was getting their food as they planned their prison break escape. "And to do that I'm gonna need a few things. The guards wear security bands to control their ins and outs. I need one."

"Leave it to me," Gamora said, looking at one of the guards.

"That dude, there. I need his prosthetic leg." Rocket said to a man that the quartet had past.

"His leg?" Peyton asked confused.

"Yeah. God knows I don't need the rest of him," Rocket said. "Look at him, he's useless."

"Alright," Peyton said sitting down and began eating.

"And finally, on the wall back there is a black panel. Blink yellow light. Do you see it? [Peter turns to look at it]

"Yeah." Peyton said.

"There's a quarnyx battery behind it," Rocket explained. "Purplish box, green wires. To get into that watchtower, I definitely need it."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Peyton asked, the girls and Rocket sitting down.

"Well, supposedly, these bald-bodies find you both attractive," said Rocket. "So, maybe you can work out some sort of trade."

"You must be joking." the two girls said.

"I'm only nineteen," Gamora said.

"And that's disgusting, I'm seventeen," Peyton said.

"No, I really heard they find you both attractive," Rocket said.

"Look, the point is it's twenty feet up in the air, and it's in the middle of the most heavily-guarded part of the prison. It's impossible to get up there without being seen."

"I got one plan, and that plan requires a frickin' quarnyx battery, so figure it out!" Rocket yelled. "Can I get back to it?"

Peyton didn't say anything.

"Thanks," he said sarcastically. "Now, this is important. Once the battery is removed, everything is gonna slam into emergency mode. Once we have it, we gotta move quickly, so you definitely need to get that last."

However, unknown to the trio, Groot approached where the battery was at. He grew up to his full height and reached in to grab the battery. He struggled with it at first. as it was wired into the wall. Oh, and on another note, he had thrown one of the shields and knocked a man out with it (by accident of course). Drax was watching this entire scene play out. Just as Groot tore out the battery, they heard the alarms. The trio looked to see Groot smiling while holding it out.

"Or we could just get it first and improvise," Rocket sighed.

"I'll get the armband." Gamora said.

"Leg," Peyton said as she got up. The girls ran off as Rocket just face-palmed himself.

"Prisoner, drop the device immediately and retreat to your cell," said the Watchtower guard, "or we will open fire."

"I... am... GROOT!" Groot shouted.

"Fire!" the Watchtower guard said. "All prisoners return to your sleeping areas.

Groot was trying to shield himself from the drones' fire. Rocket quickly ran on the side of Groot and onto his best friend's shoulders.

"You idiot! How am I supposed to fight these things without my stuff?" he asked Groot. Drax, meanwhile, watched the entire battle fall through. He saw the Guards attempting to fire at Rocket and Groot.

"The animal is in control. Fire on my command!" shouted the prisoner guard.

With one punch, Drax knocked out the entire group of guards with guns. He took one of the guns and looked to Rocket and Groot.

"Creepy little beast!" Drax shouted. Rocket looked and saw the gun thrown into his direction. He grabbed onto the gun, finally happy to be back. He was back man!

"Oh, yeah," Rocket said. He and Groot spun around as Rocket fired at the guard that were trying to kill them all. He shouted with victory as the guns fired. Meanwhile, Peyton knew that Rocket was sending her on a wild goose chase. She just wanted to make it seem that she was doing what Rocket told her to do. It at least amused him.

"He needed my what?" the One-legged prisoner asked.

Meanwhile, Gamora was fighting the guards coming at her, and suddenly, she came across the man who had ordered the prisoners to kill her yesterday. She had his arm in between her legs.

"I'll need this," she said, gesturing to the man's arm.

"Good luck. It's internally wired." he said with a smirk.

"I'll figure something out," Gamora said with a smirk, and broke the man's arm.

Peyton ran for her life, but had to stop when one of the men that tried to kill Gamora came around with a gun. However, Peyton had at least several cybernetics that her father had inside her. She may have had an alien translator transplanted in her neck, but she knew how to fight. She knocked the guard out with a nearby pole and stole all of his weapons and put them in her shoes as she ran

"Rocket!" Gamora shouted. Rocket looked as she threw the security arm band. Rocket climbed as Groot grew to his full height. Peyton wasn't that far behind, but the girl stopped when the guns were all pointed at Peyton. However, Drax came just on time, bringing the machine down. He pointed at her.

"You! Child whose father has lain with an A'askavariian!" Drax said.

"My father only did it one time, man," Peyton muttered as Drax followed her. She and the rest of the group entered the door. Groot threw the prison guard out the door as the quintet entered the room. Gamora looked scared when the man who nearly killed her entered the room.

"Spare me your foul gaze, woman," he snarled at Gamora.

"Why is this one here?" Gamora asked, pointing at him.

" We promised him he could stay by your side until he kills your boss," Peyton answered. "I always keep my promises, when they're to muscle-bound whack-jobs who will kill me if I don't."

"Hey kid, where's the leg?" Rocket asked. Peyton shot him knowing looks

"Come on, Rocket," Peyton said. "We both know you didn't need the leg."

"Shit, kid, you're ruining all my fun," Rocket muttered to himself. Peyton rolled her eyes.

"How are we gonna leave?" Drax asked.

"Well, he's got a plan." she said pointing at Rocket. She looked at the not-a-raccoon. "Right? Or is that another thing you made up?

"I have a plan! I have a plan!" Rocket cried, still fidgeting with the control panel.

"Cease your yammering and relieve us from this irksome confinement." Drax muttered.

"Yeah, I'll have to agree with the walking thesaurus on that one," Peyton said.

"Do not ever call me a thesaurus." Drax sneered at the girl.

"It's just a metaphor, dude," Peyton said, resisting the urge to role her eyes.

"His people are completely literal, blondie," Rocket said. "Metaphors are gonna go over his head."

"Nothing goes over my head," Drax snapped. "My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it."

"I'm gonna die surrounded by the biggest idiotic boys in the galaxy and I have a child telling me what to do.," Gamora muttered.

"Not a child!" Peyton yelled annoyed (again).

This plan wasn't going to work. They saw the group of men with gigantic guns.

"Those are some big guns." Peyton said.

"On my command! Number one!" shouted the Head Riot Guard.

"Rodent, we are ready for your plan." Gamora shouted.

"Hold on!"

"Number two!

They shot again.

"I recognize this animal," Drax said. "We'd roast them over a flame pit as children. Their flesh was quite delicious."

"Not helping!" shouted Rocket, continuing to hotwire the area they were currently hiding in. Just as the commander was going to issue another order, Rocket smiled as he attached the two wires together. Everywhere but their pod, the artificial gravity was shut off. Everyone began floating as Gamora smiled.

"You turned off the artificial gravity, everywhere but in here," Gamora said.

"I told you I had a plan," Rocket said with a smile. He began piloting the pod as the crew flew past all the prisoners' sells and finally out of the area. Rocket had opened up a door so that way they were able to past. He landed it very heavily.

"That was a pretty good plan," Peyton said. Rocket looked at her as if she were crazy.


	7. Chapter 6: Escape – Part 2

**Chapter 6: Escape – Part 2**

Peyton and her reluctant allies made their way to the impound area to look through their stuff. Peyton looked through the window and spotted her ship.

"Yeah! There it is. Get my ship. It's the Milano, the orange and blue one over in the corner." Peyton said.

"They crumpled my pants up into a ball. That's rude! They folded yours," Rocket complained. Peyton hurriedly searched the containers and found her possessions. She took the bag and opened it up quickly, but couldn't find anything but the orb.

"The orb's there. Let's go!" Gamora shouted. Peyton continued looking for her Walkman. She needed her Walkman and her Awesome Mix tape. It was the only thing she had left of her mom.

"Wait, wait, wait," Peyton said. "That bastard didn't put it back."

"Put what back?" Gamora asked. When she wasn't looking, Peyton took the orb and stuffed it in her pocket, in case they thought of leaving her.

"Here." Peyton said. She gave her friend the bag. "Get them to the ship, I will be right back."

"How are you gonna possibly..." Gamora asked. To Peyton, the girl sounded concerned for her.

"Just keep the Milano close by. Go. Go!" Peyton said. Quickly, she got back into her tank top, jeans, boots and red leather jacket with her mask upon her head. She held two blasters in her hands as the guards were gaining up on her. Peyton hardly killed people unlike her two companions, Drax and Gamora. She only stunned people, even the villains who tried to capture her. She shot at the guards and made her way to the blue bastard's room.

"Well, how's she gonna get to us?" Rocket asked concerned.

"She declined to share that information with me,' Gamora answered in the passenger's seat.

"Well, screw this, then! I ain't waiting around for some humie kid with a death wish. You got the orb, right?"

"Yes," Gamora said, looking at the bag that Peyton had given her. However, she couldn't find that orb that contained whatever their buyer was interested in. Peyton was tossing the object up and down, knowing it was right to steal the orb from her reluctant companions. She got closer as she heard the blue idiotic guard listening to her music. She took her blaster and shot him, set for stun and stole her Walkman back as Peyton made her way back to her allies.

"If we don't leave now, we will be blown to bits," Rocket snapped.

"No! We're not leaving without the orb," Gamora snapped. Drax looked out and saw the kid returning. They stood by the pod as Peyton was brought up. Drax and Gamora held onto Peyton's arms as she got up.

"This child shows spirit. She shall make a keen ally in the battle against Ronan," said Drax. He looked at the girl. "Companion, what were you retrieving?"

She showed him the Walkman and walked past him.

"You're an imbecile," Drax said in shock. Peyton later walked by to see Rocket tear apart her ship.

"Woah, woah, woah! Yoh, Ranger Rick!" Paige shouted. "What are you doing? You can't take apart my ship without asking me!" She gestured to the object on the ground. "See, what is this?"

"Don't touch that, it's a bomb," Rocket said.

"A bomb?"

"Yep."

"And you leave it lying around?"

"I was gonna put it in a box."

"What's a box gonna do?"

Rocket reached into her drawers and grabbed onto the wrapped present Peyton's mom gave her before she died.

"How about this one?" He reached in to touch it

"No! Woah! Hey! Hey! Leave it alone!" Peyton shouted as she slammed the drawer closed with her foot.

"Why? What is it?" Rocket asked.

"Shut up." shouted Peyton. She looked at another thing he pulled out of the ship. "What is that?"

"That's for if things get really hardcore" Rocket said with a smile. "Or if you wanna blow up moons."

"No one's blowing up moons," Gamora snapped, joining the duo.

"You just wanna suck the joy out of everything." Rocket muttered.

"So, listen, I'm gonna need your buyer's coordinates," Peyton said, standing near the auto-pilot.

"We're heading in the right direction, for now," Gamora said, picking up the orb.

"If we're gonna work together, you might want to try trusting me a little bit," said Peyton

"And how much do you trust me?"

"I'd trust you a lot more if you told me what this was. Because I'm guessing it's some kind of weapon."

"I don't know what it is," Gamora said truthfully. Drax grabbed onto the stone after Peyton put it down.

"If it's a weapon, we should use it against Ronan," Drax said.

"Put it down, you fool! You'll destroy us all," Gamora sneered.

"Or just you, murderess!"

"I let you live once, princess!"

"I am not a princess!"

"Hey!" Peyton yelled. She came in between Drax and Gamora. "Nobody is killing anybody on my ship! We're stuck together until we get the money.

"I have no interest in money," Drax sneered.

"Great. That means more money for the three of us," Peyton said with a smile. However, she felt Groot nudge her. Peyton had forgotten about him. "Sorry, for the four of us. Partners."

"We have an agreement," Gamora corrected her, "but I would never be partners with the likes of you. I'll tell the buyer we're on our way." She walked up the ladder, but stopped and looked at Peyton. "And Quill, your ship is filthy."

"Oh, she has no idea," said Peyton as she watched Gamora go up the steps. She looked down at Rocket. "What?"

"You got issues, Peyton," Rocket told her.

In the Kyln, nearly every one of the prisoners were on the ground, either dead or pretending to be dead.

" I swear, I don't know where they went! I swear!" the Head riot guard cried. Nebula's sword was pointed at his neck.

"If he knew where they were headed, he'd have already told us," Nebula said. She looked at the screen nearby to see that it read the Nova Corps were coming. She looked at Ronan. "Ronan, the Nova Corps sent a fleet to defend the prison."

"Well, then, send Necrocraft to every corner of the quadrant," Ronan said. He and Nebula walked away from the guard as he was killed by one of the Sakaarans.

"Find the orb. Any means, any price."

"And this place?"

"The Nova can't know what we're after. Cleanse it!" Ronan shouted.

Back on Xandar, Kraglin and Yondu were at the Broker's shop to get information on what happened to Yondu's little girl and Kraglin's little sister. Yondu was pressed up against a glass where he saw a blue frog knickknack. The broker wasn't sure if this guy was for real or not. For one, the usually mean and cold-hearted Yondu Udonta was never a softie, and two, it was just a small knickknack that was worth nothing.

"Do you have any other cute little buggers like this one?" Yondu said, "I like to stick 'em all in a row on my control console."

"I can't tell if you're joking or not,"

"He's being fully serious." Kraglin said seriously.

"In that case, I can show you..." the Broker began.

"But first, you gonna tell me what this orb is, and why everybody cares so damn much about it. And then you gonna tell me, where my daughter is presumably heading, and who out there might wanna buy it.

"Sir, the high-end community is a..." the Broker began, but Yondu disturbed him in another language. "The high-end community is a..."

Yondu did it again.

"It's a tight-knit... "

Yondu needed his daughter now! He wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by again. He spoke again, as Kraglin laughed.

"I cannot possibly betray the confidentiality of my buyers, and you don't even know your daughter will be there!"

Yondu grew annoyed again. He whistled and let the thing hover over the Broker's head.

"Now, who again is this buyer of yours?"

"Now, if you don't mind, I've got a daughter that needs me and an orb to sell. Now, who again is this buyer of yours.

He's called the Collector and he's on Knowhere!" cried Broker.

"Thank you for your answer," Yondu said. He whistled the arrow back and went back into his place. He had a little girl and an orb to catch.


	8. Chapter 7:Knowhere

Peyton from below was listening to "Moonage Daydream" by David Bowie as the ship was making a slow halt.

"Heads up! We're inbound," Rocket said. she ran up the steps to see what appeared to be a head-like figure as she put her headphones around her neck.

"Woah." said Peyton.

"What is it?" Drax asked.

"It's called Knowhere. The severed head of an ancient celestial being. Be wary headed in, rodent. There are no regulations whatsoever here," Gamora said. The ship was landed on the outskirts of the planet as the group made their way into the planet.

"Hundreds of years ago, the Tivan Group sent workers in to mine the organic matter within the skull," Gamora said. She wasn't lying, there were many places filled with yellow liquids. "The bone, brain tissue, spinal fluid. All rare resources, highly valued in black markets across the galaxy. It's dangerous and illegal work, suitable only for outlaws."

"Well, I come from a planet of outlaws," Peyton said. "Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde and John Stamos."

"It sounds like a place which I would like to visit." Drax said.

"Yeah, you should." Peyton said. She saw other children rushing waiting for money from the older girls and the men. "Watch your wallets."

A girl approached Groot. Peyton looked back and smiled as Groot gave a little girl a flower he grew. Peyton had to admit, even though Groot was gigantic, he still was a gentle giant. The two of them made their way to a bar.

"Your buyer's in there?" Peyton asked.

"We are to wait here for his representative," Gamora said.

"This is no respectable establishment." Drax said. "What do you expect us to do while we wait?"

The answer was, of course, gambling. Drax Rocket, and Groot were all surrounding a table with alcoholic drinks in their hands. Drax began laughing as the Orloni were being eaten by a larger creature. However, Groot was horrified by it all. He let out a horrified gasp as the poor creatures were being eaten by the gigantic monster that ran around on the table.

"Yes! Yes! My Orloni has won, as I win at all things! Now, let's put more of this liquid into our bodies," Drax said happily.

"That's the first thing you said that wasn't bat-shit crazy!" Rocket shouted.

However, they were not joined by the girls, who were still outside.

"Man, you wouldn't believe what they charge for fuel out here," Peyton said. She went to join Gamora's side on the balcony. "I might actually lose money on this job.

"My connection is making us wait," said Gamora.

"It's just a negotiation tactic. Trust me, this is my specialty. Where yours is more, 'Stab, stab. Those are my terms.' "

"My father didn't stress diplomacy." Gamora said.

"Thanos?" Peyton asked confused.

"He's not my father. When Thanos took my home world, he killed my parents in front of me." Gamora said. "He tortured me, turned me into a weapon. When he said he was going to destroy an entire planet for Ronan, I... I couldn't stand by and..." She stopped and looked down at the Walkman that Peyton had.

"Why would you risk your life for this?" Gamora asked. Peyton looked down as a tear came down her face.

"What's wrong?" Gamora asked concerned.

"It was my mom's," Peyton said. "It's the only thing I have left of her. My mom would often tell me stories of how my dad was from the stars. No one ever believed her. She, uh, she had brain cancer so people thought she was a bit delusional. I've never met my biological father."

"I thought Yondu was your father," Gamora said.

"Biologically, no," Peyton answered. "But, no matter how many times we'll hate and fight each other, Yondu will always be my father."

"So, what is the mechanisms of your listening device?"

"Well," Peyton said, having "Fooled Around and Fell in Love." "See, my mom liked to share with me all the pop songs that she loved growing up. I happened to have it on me when I was...the day that she... You know, when I left Earth."

"What do you do with it?"

"Do? Nothing. You listen to it. Or you can dance."

"I'm a warrior and an assassin. I do not dance."

"Really? Well, on my planet, there's a legend about people like you. It's called 'Footloose.' And in it, a great hero named Kevin Bacon, teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that dancing, well...it's the greatest thing there is."

"Who put the sticks up their butts?"

"What? No, that's just a... It's just a phrase people use."

She placed the Walkman on the taller woman's head. Gamora actually thought this song was good.

"The melody is pleasant!" Gamora shouted.

Gamora and Peyton both began to enjoy the music when the girls heard Rocket and Drax fighting one another. This was not the best time to start a bar fight! They both looked at each other as they rushed into the bar. They came in to see Drax was on Groot and Rocket had his gun pointed at the gigantic man and the walking, talking tree. Quickly, Peyton got between the two boys as Gamora pried Drax off of Groot. Peyton had her hand reached out as Rocket had his gun still pointing at Drax, ignoring Peyton altogether.

"What are you guys doing?!" shouted Peyton. She looked at both of her male companions.

"This vermin speaks of affairs he knows nothing about!" Drax shouted, with Gamora's hand on his shoulder.

"That is true!" Rocket snapped.

"He has no respect!"

"That is also true!"

"Hold on! Hold on!"

"Keep calling me vermin, tough guy! You just wanna laugh at me like everyone else!"

"Rocket, you're drunk. Alright?" Peyton said softly, looking at her raccoon companion. "No one's laughing at you."

"He thinks I'm some stupid thing! He does! Well, I didn't ask to get made! I didn't ask to be torn apart, and put back together, over and over and turned into some...some little monster!"

"Rocket, no one's calling you a monster." Peyton said, trying to keep her voice down.

"He called me vermin!" Rocket pointed at Drax and then at Gamora. "She called me rodent! Let's see if you can laugh after five or six good shots to your frickin' face!" He was going to shoot at Drax again.

"No, no, no, no! Four billion units! Rocket! Come on, man. Hey! Suck it up for one more lousy night and you're rich."

She waited for him to respond for a long time. Rocket withdrew his weapon.

"Fine. But I can't promise when all this is over I'm not gonna kill every last one of you jerks." Rocket sneered.

"See? That's exactly why none of you have any friends!" Peyton shouted. Even she had friends from the Ravagers and Kraglin had become her best friend and the older brother she never had. "Five seconds after you meet somebody, you're already trying to kill them!"

"We have traveled halfway across the quadrant, and Ronan is no closer to being dead," Drax sneered. He walked out the door.

"Drax!" Peyton shouted after their companion. She was going to follow him, but Gamora grabbed onto her arm gently.

"Let him go," Gamora said softly. She sneered the rest of the time. "We don't need him."

Suddenly, the door opened up to reveal a pink-skinned woman walk through the door. She called out to Gamora.

"Milady Gamora, I'm here to fetch you for my master," she said unusually pleasant.


	9. Chapter 8 The Collector and the Accuse

**Chapter 8 – The Collector and the Accuser**

"Okay, this isn't creepy at all," Rocket said once the entered the room Carina led them too.

"We house the galaxy's largest collection of fauna, relics, and species of all manner," Carina said. Rocket growled with a dog that was in a spacesuit, but was distracted from thoughts when Carina led them to a richly dressed man with furs. Peyton's green eyes followed the strange man and had her hand on her gun if he tried something funny with Gamora, but she also held onto the grip of her sword.

"Oh, my dear Gamora. How wonderful to meet in the flesh," Tivan said, kissing her hand.

"Let's bypass the formalities, Tivan. We have what we discussed," Gamora said.

"What is that thing there?" the Collector asked, looking at Groot.

"I am Groot," the creature said.

"I never thought I'd meet a Groot. Sir, you must allow me to pay you now so that I may own your carcass. At the moment of your death, of course.

"I am Groot." was all Groot said again."

"Why, so he could turn you into a frickin' chair?" Rocket asked sarcastically.

"That's your pet?" he asked pointing at Rocket.

"His what?!" Rocket said.

Oh shit, thought Peyton. She didn't want there to be any more trouble with anyone, ever since that incident with Drax.

Peyton knelt down to his height.

"Rocket, calm down," Peyton said softly. She put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from attacking the Collector, who chuckled. Rocket looked at her but removed his hand from the blaster after a soft nod.

"Tivan, we have been halfway around the galaxy, retrieving this orb," Gamora said.

"Very well, then. Let us see what you brought," the Collector said.

"Quill, the orb," Gamora said. Peyton removed her hand from Rocket and put her hand on the Orb. She was going to give it to Tivan, but suddenly, the orb fell onto the ground. Quickly Peyton got up and handed Tivan the orb.

Meanwhile, Drax was walking out of the bar and noticed a message dispatch center. He took both of his knives and put them up against the messenger's throat.

"You shall send a message for me," Drax said.

"What should I send?" the Messenger said, scared for his life.

"Oh, my new friends," the Collector said. He had the orb open up what appeared to be a purple stone within the orb. Now, they were going to know the true nature of this thing in the orb. He began to control his mechanisms. "Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots. Infinity Stones. These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength. Observe. These carriers can use the stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field. Once, for a moment, a group was able to share the energy amongst themselves, but even they were quickly destroyed by it. Beautiful. Beyond compare."

They looked at the stone.

" Blah, blah, blah. We're all very fascinated, whitey," Rocket said sarcastically. "But we'd like to get paid."

"How would you like to get paid?

"What do you think, fancy man?" shouted Rocket. "Units!"

"Very well, then," Tivan said, reaching to where the money was. He noticed Carina was watching the entire time. She made her way to the stone.

"Carina. Stand back," he told his servant.

"I will no longer be your slave!" Carina shouted.

"NO!" Tivan shouted. Suddenly, Carina began glowing purple and began screaming as the stone itself began to explode. Groot didn't have any more time to save Gamora and Peyton. He had quickly grabbed onto Groot and began running with him in his arms. Quickly, Gamora grabbed onto Peyton's arm and the two of them hid underneath a table-like structure with a ditch. As the place exploded, the duo came out from their hiding space.

"What the f..?" Peyton began.

Gamora quickly took the orb and had the stone contained within it again. They both left the now destroyed building.

"How could I think Tivan could contain whatever was within the orb?" Gamora said with the stone. Rocket came up to them in a panic to see the girls were holding the orb, it still in the girls' possessions.

"What do you still have it for?" Rocket shouted.

"Well what are we gonna do, leave it in there?" Peyton shouted.

"I can't believe you had that in your purse!" Rocket yelled.

"And I can't believe you left a bomb on my ship!" Peyton shouted.

"We have to bring this to the Nova Corps," Gamora said. "There's a chance they can contain it."

"Are you kidding me?" Rocket yelled. "We're wanted by the Nova Corps! Just give it to Ronan!"

"So he can destroy the galaxy?" Peyton shouted.

"What are you, some Saint all of a sudden, kid?" Rocket asked the seventeen-year-old "What has the galaxy ever done for you? Why would you wanna save it?"

"Because I'm one of the idiotic kids who lives in it!" yelled Peyton.

"Peyton, listen to me," the Zehoberei said. Gamora grabbed onto Peyton's red leather jacket gently. "We cannot allow the stone to fall into Ronan's hands. We have to go back to your ship and deliver it to Nova."

"Right, right, okay. I think you're right," the seventeen-year-old replied.

"Or we could give it to somebody who's not going to arrest us, who's really nice for a whole lot of money. I think it's a really good balance between both of our points of view," Rocket suggested.

"No!" Peyton said, both she and Gamora glaring at Rocket. "We are not doing that, we're doing what Gamora suggests: going to get this to the Nova Corps."

"Oh, no," Gamora said.

"Gamora? What's wrong?" Peyton asked. She looked up to see what she was talking about. Ronan's fleet was right in front of them.


	10. Chapter 9: We almost got Killed Again

**Chapter 9: We almost Got Killed…Again**

How did he even know that they were there? Who could have been so stupid as to call him. Her answer came moments later when Drax came out with his two daggers.

"At last! I shall meet my foe and destroy him!" shouted Drax.

"You called Ronan?" Peyton and Gamora shouted at him.

"I don't know how this could get any worse," Peyton muttered.

As if on cue, a blue figure followed with a Xandarian and several of the fleets.

"Peyton!" Yondu shouted. Peyton looked away from Drax and saw her father. "Don't you move, girl!"

"Holy, crap, it's my father," Peyton said.

Gamora noticed that this was the wrong time for a father/daughter confrontation. She grabbed onto Peyton's hand and the two girls began running with Rocket and Groot following from behind. They ran even after Yondu yelled at them to stop. They made their way to the pods while also losing Peyton's adoptive family.

"I told you, you can't fit. Now, wait here. I'll be back," Rocket told his best friend. Nebula noticed her sister was escaping with the orb.

"It is Gamora." Nebula said. "She is escaping with the orb."

"Nebula, retrieve the orb," Ronan said to Nebula. She rushed to her ship to pursue her adoptive sister. She took her COMM link and spoke through it to her followers.

"The stone is in the furthest pod. Bring it down!" Nebula shouted, her team following Gamora. Peyton looked down to see that they were chasing her.

"Rocket, keep them off Gamora until she gets to the Milano," Peyton said through her COMM link.

"How?" the not-a-raccoon asked. We've got no weaponry on these things.

"These pods are industrial grade," said Peyton. "They're nearly indestructible."

"Not against necro blasts, they're not," Rocket said.

"That's not what I'm saying." Peyton clarified.

"Oh," Rocket said, now getting what she was saying.

"Quill, I'm trapped!" Gamora said through her radio. "I can't make it to the Milano, I have to head out."

"What? Wait! These things aren't meant to go out there. Gamora!" Peyton shouted in the seat of her own pod, watching Gamora fly out. She and Rocket followed her out of Knowhere. Nebula's ship was chasing Gamora's pod, ready to fire at her.

"You are a disappointment, sister," Nebula said to her sister. "Of all our siblings, I hated you least."

"Nebula, please," Gamora begged her younger sister. "If Ronan gets this stone he'll kill us all."

"Not all. You will already be dead," Nebula said. She fired at Gamora who fell out with the orb in her hands, causing Peyton to shout her friend's name.

"No! Gamora!" Peyton shouted. She and Rocket watched as a tractor beam brought the Orb into the ship. It was all a lost cause for them. Rocket felt guilty that they couldn't do anything about it, but he and Peyton had to get out of there.

"Peyton, come on," Rocket said. "Her body mods should keep her alive a couple more minutes, but there's nothing we can do for her. These pods aren't meant to be out here. In a second, we're gonna be in the same boat."

"Aw, damn it!" Peyton said. She took her comlink.

"Peyton?" Rocket questioned her. He stopped his pod. Peyton took the thing that helped activate her helmet. She took her comm link to contact her father. She just had to save Gamora.

"Dad," Peyton spoke through the comlink.

"Peyton!" Rocket shouted at her, but Peyton was ignoring him.

"Dad, this is your daughter Peyton," Peyton said.

"Peyton! What the hell are you doing?!" Rocket shouted.

"My coordinates are 227K324, just outside of Knowhere. If you're there, come get me. I'm all yours."

She floated out and flew next to Gamora.

"Peyton, don't be ridiculous. Get back into your pod! You can't fit two people in there, you're gonna die," Rocket shouted.

Peyton took Gamora into her arms.

"stupid kid! Peyton! You'll die in seconds!" Rocket shouted.

Peyton didn't care. She turned off her comm link and placed her helmet onto Gamora. Peyton began to slowly freeze in the regions of space. However, the Ravenger ship, the Elector showed up. Rocket watched hopelessly as the girls were brought into the ship. Both girls were in the ship on their backs, gasping for air.

"Pey—Peyton?" Gamora said. Peyton was surprised that the teenager had called her by her real name for a change.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't let you die," Peyton said sadly.

"Sorry? Why are you sorry?" Gamora said. She grew more alarmed. "Where's the Orb?"

"Oh that," Peyton said. "It's...well, they got the orb."

"What?" Gamora said alarmed. Gamora and Peyton looked to see her foster father's men gathering in the room as the two girls were still together.

"Welcome home, Peyton," Kraglin said. In his tone, that meant "You're in so much trouble, young lady."

Back on Knowhere, Groot had pulled Drax out of the liquid that Ronan had thrown him in earlier. He took his finger and then pressed it in Drax's shoulder. Immediately, Drax coughed up the water just as Rocket got down on the ground.

"Blasted idiot. They're all idiots! Peyton just got herself and Gamora captured!" Rocket shouted.

He looked at Drax. This was all his fault that the girls were kidnapped.

"None of this ever would have happened if you didn't try to single-handedly take on a frickin' army!"

"I was a fool." Drax agreed. "All the anger, all the rage, was just to cover my loss."

Rocket understood but this wasn't the time for a sob story.

"Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. My wife and child are dead." Rocket mocked. Groot gasped at his friend's insensitivity. "Oh, I don't care if it's mean! Everybody's got dead people! That's no excuse to get everybody else dead along the way! Come on, Groot. Ronan has the stone. The only chance we got is to get to the other side of the universe as fast as we can and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to live full lives before that whack-job ever gets there."

"I am Groot," Groot said, getting up.

"Save them? How?" Rocket asked.

"I am Groot." he said.

"I know they're the only friends that we ever had, and I know they're both girls, but there's an army of Ravagers around them," Rocket answered. " And there's only two of us!"

Drax rose to stand next to Rocket.

"Three." Drax said. Rocket grew mad and turned around kicking nearby grass.

"Aw! You're making me beat up grass!" Rocket shouted.

"The orb is in my possession, as I promised," Ronan told Thanos via a video message

"Bring it to me," Thanos demanded.

"Yes, that was our agreement," Ronan said, grabbing onto the orb. "Bring you the orb, and you will destroy Xandar for me. However, now that I know it contains an Infinity Stone, I wonder what use I have for you."

"Boy, I would reconsider your current course," Thanos warned him.

"Master! You cannot!" Korath shouted. "Thanos is the most powerful being in the universe."

"Not anymore," Ronan told his lieutenant.

He took the orb within and placed it in his hammer.

"You call me 'boy'! I will unfurl one thousand years of Kree justice on Xandar, and burn it to its core! Then, Thanos, I'm coming for you."

The call ended.

"After Xandar, you're going to kill my father?" Nebula asked.

"You dare to oppose me?" Ronan asked her

"You see what he has turned me into," Nebula said, gesturing to all of her mechanics. "You kill him, I will help you destroy a thousand planets."


	11. Chapter 10: A Plan

**Chapter 10 – A Plan**

Peyton and Gamora were in a heap of trouble when they were brought to Yondu. Immediately, Ravagers grabbed onto Gamora's arms, causing Peyton to panic.

"Hey, let her go!" Peyton shouted, but her father stopped her by grabbing her shoulders.

"Peyton Jane Quill-Udonta, I want to know, what the hell were you thinking?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Yondu shouted, while also shaking her. "You've betrayed me and stole my money! What possessed you to do something stupid like this?"

"Stop, leave her alone!" Gamora shouted, trying to get to her friend.

"When I picked you up as a kid, I was this close to giving you away for a better life for this. THIS CLOSE! DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT I WENT THROUGH?! I'VE PROTECTED YOU SINCE YOU WERE A CHILD! I saved your life!"

"Oh, will you shut up about that? God! Ten years, you've been throwing that in my face, like it's some great thing, not eating me! You abducted me, man. You stole me from my home and from my birth family."

"You don't give a damn about your Terra!" Yondu shouted. He released Peyton and turned around.

"Daddy, there's something more important than all of this!" she shouted. "Ronan has something called an Infinity Stone..."

"I know what he's got, girl," Yondu snapped.

"Then you know we must get it back!" Gamora shouted. "He's gonna use it to wipe out Xandar. We have to warn them. Billions of people will perish."

"Is that what she's been filling your head with, kid? Sentiment? Eating away your brain like maggots!" Yondu shouted. He looked at Peyton in the eyes and then looked at Gamora.

Yondu shook his head.

"That's it." Yondu said. He gave a signature whistle that Peyton knew and out came the arrow out of his holster. Peyton closed her eyes, expecting the arrow to go to her throat, however the opposite happened. He pointed it at Gamora as Yondu made his way to the nineteen-year-old girl.

"NO!" Peyton shouted.

"Kraglin, hold her back," Yondu ordered.

Immediately Kraglin was at his adoptive sister's side holding onto her arm in a firm grasp.

"No, Daddy, please, don't hurt her," Peyton pleaded, while trying to fight Kraglin.

"Sorry, girl, but a captain's gotta teach his men, particularly his daughter, what happens to those what cross him," Yondu said.

"Don't waste your time, Peyton," Gamora said, "This is what I deserve for all the crimes I've done in the past."

Yondu couldn't look at Peyton as he went to kill her friend, for he did not want to see her pained reaction when he 'd kill Gamora. Suddenly, a thought came to Peyton that could save her friend.

"WAIT!" Peyton shouted. Yondu stopped and smiled, listening curiously. "If you kill her now, Daddy, you are saying goodbye to the biggest score you have ever seen."

"The Stone?" asked Yondu. "I hope you got something better than that girl. Because ain't nobody stealing from Ronan."

"But Dad, we have an advantage," Peyton said. She gestured to Gamora. "We got a ringer."

"Is that right?" Yondu asked, but never leaving his gaze off of Peyton.

"Gamora knows everything there is to know about Ronan. His ships, his army," Peyton said. She shot Gamora a look, to which Gamora knew she was basically saying "help me out here". The young Zehoberei got it in her head and nodded, looking at Yondu.

"He's vulnerable," Gamora said.

"Hey, what do you say, Daddy, huh? Me and you, daddy-daughter bonding time, and taking down a mark side-by-side, like the old days," Peyton said with a smile.

"Let them go," Yondu said with a smile. With a whistle, he called off his arrow as Gamora forced her arms out of the men's grasp. Yondu put his arm around his little girl. "You always did have guts, kid. That's why I'm proud of you, my girl."

Suddenly, the ship stirred, causing everyone to run out to the Eclector's front.

"Captain, the shot was non-damaging," said the pilot. Gamora and Peyton looked up to see Drax on top of the Milano holding the weapon Rocket was creating earlier.

"Attention, idiots. The lunatic on top of this craft is holding a Hadron Enforcer," Rocket said from the ship. Gamora and Peyton slapped their own faces. "It's a weapon of my own design."

"What the hell?" Yondu repeated.

"If you don't hand over our girls now, he's gonna tear your ship a new one. A very big new one!"

Yondu Udonta: I ain't buyin' it." Yondu said.

"I'm giving you to the count of five." Rocket said, beginning to countdown. "Five, four, three..."

"No!" Peyton and Gamora shouted.

"No, no! Don't!" Gamora yelled.

"No! Wait, hold on!" Peyton yelled. She took her finger and spoke into the pilot's COMM link. "Rocket, it's me, for God sakes! We figured it out! We're fine!"

"Oh, hey, Pey," Rocket said in a softer and friendlier voice. "What's going on?"

Peyton smiled sheepishly at her father.

"Sorry," Peyton said. "Rocket thinks before he acts."

 _ **Later on the Milano**_ _**...after Peyton has explained their plans to Rocket.**_

"You call that 'figured it out'?" he repeated in outrage. "We're gonna rob the guys who just beat us senseless."

"Oh, you want to talk about senseless?" Peyton snapped.

"How about trying to save us by blowing us up?" Gamora snapped.

"We were only gonna blow you up if they didn't turn you girls over!" Rocket defended himself.

"And how on earth were they gonna turn us over when you only gave them a count of five?" Peyton shouted.

"Well we didn't have time to work out the minutiae of the plan," Rocket said. "This is what we get for acting altruistically!"

"I am Groot." said Groot.

"They are ungrateful," Rocket agreed.

"What's important now is we get the Ravagers' army to help us save Xandar," Gamora said.

"So we can give the Stone to Yondu who's just gonna sell to somebody even worse?" Rocket pointed out.

"We'll figure that part out later," Peyton said. Thinking of her dad and his Yaka arrow killing her friends just made her feel uncomfortable.

"We have to stop Ronan," Gamora asked.

"How?" Rocket asked.

"I have a plan." Peyton said.

"You've got a plan?" Rocket asked.

"Yes."

"First of all, you're copying me from when I said I had a plan."

"No, I'm not. People say that all the time, it's not that unique of a thing to say."

"Secondly, I don't even believe you have a plan."

"I have part of a plan!"

"What percentage of a plan do you have?" Drax asked. Gamora pointed an accusing finger at him, as to reprimand a child who wouldn't listen to his or her parents.

"You don't get to ask questions after the nonsense you pulled on Knowhere," Gamora shouted.

"I just saved Peyton and the green whore," Drax said.

"We've already established that you destroying the ship that I'm on is not saving us," Peyton said.

"When did we establish it?" Drax asked.

"Like three seconds ago!" Peyton shouted. "And stop calling her 'Green Whore'. Her name is Gamora."

"I wasn't listening, I was thinking of something else," Drax muttered. Gamora groaned in frustration.

"Gamora's right, you don't get an opinion," Rocket yelled at Drax. He looked at Peyton. "What percentage?"

"I don't know, twelve percent," Peyton answered.

"Twelve percent?" Rocket asked and began laughing.

"That's a fake laugh."

"It's real!"

"Totally fake."

"That is the most real, authentic, hysterical laugh of my entire life because that is not a plan."

"It's barely a concept, Peyton," Gamora said.

"You're taking their side now?" Peyton said, feeling a bit betrayed.

"I am Groot." Groot said. Rocket looked at his companion.

"So what, it's better than eleven percent?" Rocket asked. " What the hell does that have to do with anything?"'

"Thank you, Groot. Thank you." Peyton said happily while putting her hand on his shoulder before looking at the others. "See? Groot's the only one of you who has a clue. "

Peyton regretted that quote when she saw Groot was eating his own leaf off of him. She sighed and looked at her friends.

"Guys. Come on. My dad is gonna be here in two seconds," Peyton said. "He expects to hear this big plan of ours. I need your help. I look around at us, you know what I see? Losers." Everyone gave her a glare. She clarified her statement. "I mean, like, folks who have lost stuff. And we have. Man, we have. All of us. Our homes, our families, normal lives. And, usually, life takes more than it gives, but not today. Today, it's given us something. It has given us a chance."

"To do what?" Drax asked.

"To give a shit," Peyton said. "For once, not run away. I, for one, am not gonna stand by and watch as Ronan wipes out billions of innocent lives."

"But, Peyton, stopping Ronan, it's impossible," Rocket said sadly. "You're asking us to die."

"Yeah, I guess I am. I..." Peyton sighed and looked away from her friends.

"Peyton. I have lived most my life surrounded by my enemies," Gamora said. She got to her feet. "I will be grateful to die among my friends."

Drax got on his feet next.

"You are an honorable woman, Peyton," Drax said. Peyton looked at him. He had finally called her a woman, and the first person to call her. "I will fight beside you. And in the end, see my wife and daughter again."

Groot stood up next.

"I am Groot," Groot said. They all looked at Rocket, who sighed as he still was sitting.

"Oh, what the hell. I don't got that long a lifespan, anyway." Rocket said with a smile. He stood up from his seat. "Now I'm standing. You all happy? We're all standing up now. Bunch of jackasses, standing in a circle."


	12. Chapter 11: The Battle of Xandar

**Battle of Xandar**

Peyton and the others were dressed in Ravager garb and gathered around together to explain their plan to their leaders.

"The stone reacts to anything organic." Gamora said. "The bigger the target, the bigger the power surge."

"All Ronan's gotta do is touch the stone to the planet's surface and zap." Peyton said. "All plants, animals, Nova Corps."

"Everything will die." Gamora said.

"So, Ronan does not make the surface. Rocket will lead a team to blow a hole in the Dark Aster's starboard hull." She made two ships appear and a whole appearing the hologram of the Dark Aster. She created to other ships.

"Then, our craft and my dad's will enter," Peyton explained.

"But sis, won't there be hundreds of Sakaaran soldiers inside?" Kraglin asked.

"Well yes," Peyton said.

"I think of Sakaaran as paper people," Drax said. He only wore a red pants. Kraglin punched Drax in the shoulder, but the literal man didn't understand what that gesture meant. Kraglin backed down, and pretended it never happened.

"Once they know we're on board, Ronan will isolate himself behind impenetrable security doors on deck," Gamora said. "Which I can disable by dismantling the power source."

"We'll make it to the flight deck, and I'll use the Hadron Enforcer to kill Ronan," Peyton said.

"Once Ronan is dead, we will retrieve the stone. Use these devices to contain it." Gamora said.

They passed out the orbs.

"If you touch it, it will kill you," Gamora added.

"I'll contact one of the Nova officers who arrested us. Hopefully, they'll believe we're there to help," Peyton said.

"There's one more thing we need to complete the plan," Rocket said. He pointed to Vorker. "That guy's eye..."

"No! No, we don't. No, we don't need that guy's eye," Peyton said.

"No, seriously, I need it! It's important to me." Rocket said, holding back his laughs. Peyton and Gamora rolled their eyes again as they went to do their duties as Peyton went to call the Nova Corpsman, Dey. She was walking past the members.

"Ronan's fleet has been spotted, and will arrive in t-minus fifteen minutes." said a Ravager navigator.

Peyton heard the voice-over and went to join her friends. However, her father stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Remember, girl, I get the stone," Yondu said. "Your friends or you cross me, I'll kill each and every one of them and you'll be locked in your room until you learn to behave."

He released her arm and watched his little girl go to join her knew crew.

Let's go get 'em, boys!" Yondu yelled as he boarded on his sleep.

"This is a terrible plan," Gamora said a while later in their ship.

"Hey, you're the one who said you wanted to die among friends," Peyton said with a laugh as Gamora gave her friend a look. Meanwhile in Nova Corps center, the Nova Prime and the members watched as the Ravager Clan made their way to the

"Nova Prime," said Rhomann Dey. She looked at him. "I received a transmission from one of the Ravagers' daughters. She says Ronan's in possession of something called an Infinity Stone and he's headed toward Xandar."

"Good God." Irani Rael muttered.

"It's a trick. They're criminals," Denarian Saal said annoyed.

"Did she say why we should believe her?" Nova Prime asked.

"She said her crew just escaped from prison so she'd have no other reason to risk coming to Xandar to help," Dey answered.

"Do you believe she's here to help?" Rael asked.

"Yeah, I do," Dey answered.

"Fire!" Yondu yelled as the ships fired at the Dark Aster. However, the shots they fired bounced off the ships. "Cover it down! Submerge!"

"Rocket, hurry!" Peyton yelled through the COMM link.

Back on the Dark Aster, Nebula watched as the firing reflected back on their ship and spoke into her COMM link as she walked down her own path.

"All pilots, dive! They're beneath us!" Nebula yelled.

"Evacuate the city. Our priority is to get our people away from the battle," Nova prime shouted through her COMM link. Meanwhile, the group continued firing at the Dark Aster.

"Forward thrust, now!" Nebula shouted. Everything was happening so fast, since the enemy had been able to blow a hole into the ship. However, they could not make a second one for Yondu. Instead, his ship got hit by one of the Sakaaran pilots. He began going down.

"I'm going down, Pey!" Yondu yelled through his COMM link. "No more games with me, girl! I'll see you at the end of this!

Peyton suddenly realized that was probably the last time she would ever hear from her adoptive father.

"No," Peyton said.

"I'm sorry, Peyton," Gamora said to her friend. She looked at Peyton, because she knew what it was like losing a father. She looked as the pilots came out of the Dark Aster.

"There are too many of them, Rocket!" Gamora shouted through Peyton's COMM link. "We'll never make it up there!"

Just at that moment, Nova Corps pilot ships came into view.

"Peyton Quill-Udonta, this is Denarian Saal of the Nova Corps," spoke Garthan Saal. "For the record, I advised against trusting you here."

"They got my message!" Peyton yelled.

"Prove me wrong," Saal muttered.

The ship Peyton was piloting entered the ship as Nova Corps pilots had their back.

" Yes!" Drax shouted as the ship crashed through. "Yes!"

Peyton looked at Gamora, who smiled at her.

"We're just like Kevin Bacon," Gamora said.

 **Line division**

Meanwhile, Nebula had enough of all this trash, especially since the Nova Corps had locked in a golden net. Even after Ronan had told her that none of it mattered once they reached the ground, Gamora was boarding them. She would just take matters into herself as she walked out the door with full determination. Her sister wasn't going to beat her this time.

 **Line division**

"I can barely see." Drax complained. Groot nodded in understanding. He let light release itself from his bodies. Peyton, Gamora, and Drax gaped in awe. "When did you learn to do that?

"I'm pretty sure the answer is "I am Groot.' Peyton muttered. Groot nodded to her in recognition.

"The flight deck is three hundred meters this way." Gamora said.

"I want you all to know that I am grateful for your acceptance after my blunders," Drax said. "It is pleasing to once again have friends. You, Peyton, are my friend."

"Thanks," Peyton said.

"This dumb tree, he is my friend." Drax said.

"Mmm." Groot said.

"And this green whore, she, too..." Drax began.

"Oh, you must stop!" Gamora yelled, for she didn't want to hear any more yammering from that man. Suddenly, Nebula landed in front of Peyton. Gamora dragged her friend by the arm and placed her behind her.

"Gamora, look at what you have done. You have always been weak. You stupid, traitorous..." Nebula began, but Drax fired at her.

" Nobody talks to my friends like that," Drax said.

" Head to the flight deck. I'll shut down the power to the security doors," Gamora said. She ran off to follow her sister.

Yondu found that he was lucky to be alive. He came out of the destroyed ship, but stopped when he heard the sound of guns cocking.

"Order your men to turn on the Nova Corps," said the leader of the Sakaarans, who pointed his gun at Yondu. There was no way he would betray his daughter, her team or the Nova Corps, not if he wanted his daughter dead. He whistled for his arrow.

"Enough nonsense, Ravager!" shouted the Sakaaran. "Time to die..."

Yondu whistled again, and watched as his arrow flew through all of the Sakaarans and they all fell dead. Pleased, Yondu walked away from the plane crash to wait for this battle to play out.

Gamora rushed to her sister.

" Nebula, please," Gamora begged, but her sister started attacking her when she tried to get to the Battery holding the security doors together.

Meanwhile, Peyton and her team were headed towards the security door, only to be intercepted in a hall. She and her friends halted, where she noticed a familiar face.

"Star-Lady," Korath said.

"Finally," Peyton muttered, since someone got her name right. She activated her mask as Peyton and her friends continued fighting with the other Sakaarans.

"You will never make it to Ronan" Korath sneered at her.

"Stand back, young friend Peyton," Drax said and dragged her behind him while fighting the Sakaarans. Peyton fired at the ones that were firing near her. Drax grabbed onto Korath's cranial cap as his allies around him were killed. "Finger to the throat means death." He tore off his cranial cap and watched as Korath fell dead. Drax looked at his friend.

"metaphor."

"Yeah, sorta," Peyton said. However, they were suddenly met with more Sakaaran soldiers. "Oh, no."

Groot stood in front of them by taking his branch and began whipping the men side by side before throwing them down on the ground. Groot looked back at Peyton and Drax with a smile.

" Pey, you gotta hurry," Rocket told the girl through his comm link. "The city's been evacuated, but we're getting our asses kicked down here.

"Gamora hasn't opened the door!" Peyton shouted through her COMM link.

Meanwhile, Nebula and Gamora continued to battle each other with Nebula having the upper hand. Gamora however, kicked her sister out the window. Nebula found one of her arms latched onto the ship's side. Gamora reached out for her sister's hand.

"Nebula! Sister, help us fight Ronan," Gamora said. "You know he's crazy!"

"I know you're both crazy," Nebula corrected her. She took her sword and cut her robotic hand off of the hook and threw a Nova Corps pilot out of his ship. Gamora rushed to the containment and cut it with her blade. The door opened as Peyton set up the gun and pointed it at Ronan, who looked at the girl who had Rocket's enforcer lined up and hit Ronan with her fire.

"Pey, you did it!" Drax shouted. Peyton's smile slipped away slowly

"No, I didn't," Peyton said. She wanted to stop Drax when he went to attack Ronan. The Kree grabbed Drax by the throat again.

"I was mistaken, I do remember your family. Their screams were pitiful. I... " Ronan began. However, Rocket flew the ship straight into the ship's window. Peyton with all her strength, body slammed him out of the way as her ship, the _Milano_ crash-landed

Peyton walked over to the aircraft and gently lifted the unconscious Rocket into her arms, taking him over to Groot. Gamora went to where the unconscious Drax was thrown across the room by Ronan earlier and dragged him near the group. Groot looked at his friends who became his family and knew what he had to do. He began growing and formed a cocoon around his family as Rocket regained consciousness. Peyton looked at Rocket in worry, knowing that he would be upset if Groot did this. He got out of Peyton's arms and walked over to Groot.

"No, Groot! You can't, you'll die," Rocket said, tears coming down his face. "Why are you doing this? Why?"

Groot reached up to wipe the tear coming down Rocket's cheek.

"We..." he began and gestured to everyone in his cocoon "...are...Groot..."

Everything went black for everyone.


	13. Ch12: We're the Guardians of the Galaxy

**Chapter 12: We are the Guardians of the Galaxy**

Moments later, the Dark Aster was on the ground and Peyton and her friends regained consciousness. Peyton looked up to see Rocket huddled next to Groot's remains.

"I called him an idiot," Rocket cried over his deceased friend. Suddenly, movement came from the destroyed Dark Aster and Ronan came out. "You killed Groot!"

However, Rocket could not get to Ronan on time. Instead, the raccoon was tossed aside like yesterday's trash.

" **Rocket!** " Peyton shouted loud, only to see him weakly get up.

"Behold!" Ronan shouted, gesturing to Gamora, Peyton, Drax, and Rocket. "You're Guardians of the Galaxy! What fruit have they wrought? Only that my father and his father shall finally know vengeance. People of Xandar, the time has come to rejoice and renounce your paltry gods! Your salvation is at hand."

Before he could complete, Peyton began singing.

" _Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh-oo child, things will get brighter_." Peyton sung. She looked at Ronan. "Listen to these words." She continued singing. " _Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier. Ooh-oo child, things will get brighter._ " Now bring it down hard!" she began dancing. " _Someday, we'll get it together and we'll get it..._ "

"What are you doing?" Ronan asked.

"Dance-off, bro. Me and you," Peyton answered and began dancing again. "Bring it back!"

"What are you doing?" Ronan asked.

"I'm distracting you, you idiot!" Peyton shouted. Rocket and Drax finished with wiring the gun and fired at Ronan's war-hammer, causing the purple Infinity stone come out of its hold. Peyton ran to grab the infinity stone.

"NO!" Gamora shouted. she didn't want Peyton to destroy herself over a stupid stone. However, Peyton did not die. She was still withholding death.

Peyton slowly screamed as that infinity stone ripped her apart.

"Peyton! Take my hand!" Gamora yelled to her friend.

Peyton looked and she thought she saw her mother.

"Take my hand, Pey," Meredith said softly.

"Mom?" Peyton asked curiously at her mother. However, Peyton looked to see that it was in fact Gamora shouting at her. Slowly, Gamora and Peyton were holding hands, both sharing the power. Drax quickly joined in by touching Peyton's shoulder. Rocket followed. For a while everything seemed tense, but together, the four friends shared the power. Ronan was in shock.

"You're mortal! How?" Ronan asked.

"You said it yourself, bitch," Peyton said, her eyes glowing purple. "We're the Guardians of the Galaxy."

She unleashed the power stone, and with their power, they watched as their enemy was destroyed himself. Gamora with the last of her strength took out one of the orb devices and put it around the item, and the magic subsided, causing everyone to groan in exhaustion. When Gamora and Peyton looked at each other, the couldn't find any words to speak to each other. She heard her father laugh.

"Well, well, well. Quite the light show." Yondu said with a laugh. Peyton was close to rolling her eyes. "Ain't this sweet. But you got some business to attend to before all the nookie-nookie starts."

"Peyton, you can't," Gamora urged her friend, tugging on her arm. "Peyton."

Peyton looked at her friend and then at her father.

"You gotta reconsider this, Daddy," Peyton said. "I don't know who you're selling this to, but the only way the universe can survive is if you give it to the Nova Corps."

"I may be as pretty as an angel, darling, but I sure as hell ain't one," he said threateningly. He reached out an arm to his daughter. She put her hand behind her back. "Hand it over, sweetheart"

Peyton sighed and put the orb in her father's hand. She watched him walk away before clearing her throat again.

"Dad." Peyton said. He stopped and looked at her. "Do not open that orb. You know that, right? You've seen what it does to people."

All Yondu did was point at his daughter with the Orb and turned, making his way to the ship, watching Peyton and her new-found family.

"Yeah, sister turned out okay." Kraglin said, eying his little sister as the ship took off. "It's probably good we didn't deliver her to her biological father like we were hired to do."

"Yeah, that guy was a jackass." Yondu muttered to his daughter's adoptive brother.

"See you guys later," Peyton muttered. She looked at Gamora. "Man, my dad's gonna be so pissed when he realizes I switched out the orb on him."

"He was gonna kill us, Pey," Gamora said.

"Oh, no he wasn't," Peyton said. "He and Kraglin were the only family I had."

"No. He wasn't," Gamora said.

"Why would you even know this?" Peyton asked curiously.

"When we arrested you, we noticed an anomaly in your nervous system, so we had it checked out," Dey answered.

"I'm not Terran?" Peyton asked confused.

"You are half-Terran. Your mother was of earth." Nova Prime answered. Peyton looked at her shocked. "Your father, well, he's something very ancient we've never seen here before."

"That could be why you were able to hold the stone for as long as you did," Gamora said.

But why would my dad never tell me about this then? Peyton thought. The door opened, in coming Drax and Rocket. Peyton looked and saw he had one of Groot's remains in his pot.

"Your friends have arrived." Nova Prime said. She walked to the front of the Guardians. "On behalf of the Nova Corps, we'd like to express our profound gratitude for your help in saving Xandar. If you will follow Denarian Dey, he has something to show you."

Thank you, Nova Prime." Peyton and Gamora said. The two of them followed Dey. Gamora and Drax walked side by side.

"Your wife and child shall rest well knowing that you have avenged them," Gamora told her friend.

"Yes. Of course, Ronan was only a puppet. It's really Thanos I need to kill," Drax said, causing Gamora to freeze before regaining her composure.

"We tried to keep it as close to the original as possible." Dey said. Peyton looked to see the Milano back to her former glory. "We salvaged as much as we could."

"Wow. I... " Peyton began she looked at Dey. "Thank you."

"I have a family who are alive because of you," Dey said. "Your criminal records have also been expunged. However, I have to warn you against breaking any laws in the future."

"Question," Rocket said. "What if I see something that I want to take, and it belongs to someone else?"

"Well you will be arrested." Dey answered.

"But what if I want it more than the person who has it?"

"Still illegal."

"That doesn't follow. No, I want it more, sir. Do you understand?" Rocket complained. Gamora was smiling as she gently pushed Rocket by the shoulder. "What are you laughing at? Why? I can't have a discussion with this gentleman?"

Drax stopped and looked at Dey.

"What if someone does something irksome and I decide to remove his spine?" Drax asked.

"That's...that's actually murder. It's one of the worst crimes of all, so also illegal.

"Hmm," Drax pondered and made his way to the ship. Peyton stopped and looked at Dey.

"They'll be fine, Dey," Peyton said. "I'm gonna keep an eye on 'em."

"You?" Dey said.

"Yeah, me," Peyton said.

"Then whose gonna look after you?" Dey asked.

"Actually, we're going to keep an eye on each other," Peyton answered.

Inside the Milano, Peyton held a present from ten years ago and breathed in before she opened the envelop that hat her name written on it. She opened the card and it had her mother's handwriting on it. She began reading it.

 _ **Peyton,**_

 _ **I know these last few months have been hard for you. But I'm going to a better place and I will be okay. And I will always be with you. You are the light of my life. My precious daughter. My little Star-Lady.**_

 _ **Love, mom.**_

Peyton opened her present to reveal an Awesome Mix Vol. 2 tape. She placed it in the small radio and heard the first song coming on: the first chords of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." Peyton looked at Gamora with both girls looking at each other with smiles. Gamora started moving a little to the song. Apparently, Gamora did have a little dance left in her.

Meanwhile, on the _Eclector,_ Yondu looked at the object curiously. Peyton wouldn't have just given him the orb without a fight. Curiously, he opened the orb for it to reveal a small troll doll. Yondu laughed to himself. His little girl pulled a fast one. He put it with his collection.

Back on the Milano, the girls and their friends were in the crockpit as Peyton started the ship's enguine.

"So, what should we do next, my friends?" Peyton asked her new family. "Something good? Something bad? A bit of both?"

"We'll follow your lead," Gamora said with a pause and looked at the seventeen-yar-old girl with a smile, "Star-Lady."

Peyton smiled, glad to hear someone say her outlaw name right for a change.

"Bit of both!" Peyton shouted. She started up her ship as they flew for a new adventure.

 **Finally done with the first movie. Next, the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 storyline with an alternate ending. The sequel will be called Father and Daughter: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. First chapter of the sequel will be out tomorrow, and some of the film's dialogue I took from quote pages and from my own memory.**

 **Also, I think I will expand on Kraglin and Peyton's sibling relationship like how Gamora and Nebula's was.**


	14. Interlude: 17 years ago

**Okay. I changed my mind. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is going to be part of this story rather than be a story of its own. So here it is, part two of the book, first starting with a flashback of Peyton's childhood.**

 **Source of dialogue: the wikiquote page for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the quote page on IMDB and the one on Movie Quotes and More and my own memory. I don't own Guardians of the Galaxy or Guardians Vol. 2**

 **Sorry for the short chapter, but this and the first chapter combined is a good update for me.**

 **Interlude: Seventeen Years ago…**

 _ **Earth…July 1982**_

In the great southern parts of the state of Missouri, everything was quaint in this small town. The skies were blue and the fields of green grass went on for miles. A car with the clashing colors of blue, white and orange zoomed down the road. The car's radio was booming loud as "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" played in the background.

In the front seats, was a man driving with long brown hair, red leather jacket, and grey shirt with blue jeans, who was driving. In the passenger seat, was his girlfriend, a twenty-year-old woman named Meredith Quill. She wore a flowery dress with a white sweater while singing along to the song's lyrics. However, Meredith was off by a few seconds, but she didn't care. She just loved to listen to every song that came on the radio and knew the lyrics of the songs she loved word for word.

" _There's a port on a western bay and it serves a hundred ships a day Lonely sailors pass the time away And talk about their homes_ ," Meredith sung with a sweet, radiant smile on her face. She looked at Ego. " _And there's a girl in this harbor town, and she works, layin' whiskey down They say, Brandy, fetch another round She serves them whiskey and wine._ "

She looked into Ego's eyes

" _The sailors say Brandy, you're a fine girl!_ " Meredith shouted, letting her blonde curls fly out with the wind of her boyfriend's she sung to the song, her Ego, had joined in to the song with her. Meredith and Ego drove through the Missouri streets, eventually parking near the large red "Dairy Queen sign underneath. The couple got out of the car.

"Come on, Mer, I gotta show you something I've been itching to show you for a long time," Ego said with a smile.

Meredith smiled and took her boyfriend's hand as he led her to the woods. The duo met up with a dirt road that would lead them to what Ego was trying to show his girlfriend.

"This way, my river lily," Ego said happily, still holding his love's hand.

"Where are you taking me?" Meredith said happily, still giggling silly from her lover's mysterious nature. The duo stopped to a very beautiful plant nestled in the grass. Meredith smiled at the sight of it.

"Oh, it's so beautiful," Meredith said, eyeing the plant.

"I was afraid its roots wouldn't take to the soil, but it has. Far more quickly than I thought. Soon it will be everywhere all across the universe!"

He gestured around the world with his hands and a smile. The two of them looked each other in the eye.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Meredith said, her Missouri accent more clearer than it was a few moments ago, "but I like the way you said it."

"No matter what is to come know this: my heart is yours, Meredith Quill."

Meredith wrapped her arms around Ego's neck.

"I can't believe I fell in love with a spaceman," Meredith said. She and Ego both went forward to entice themselves in a passionate kiss.


	15. Chapter 13: The Abilisk

**_Chapter 12: The Abilisk_**

 _Seventeen years later… on the Sovereign planet_

The now famously known guardians of the Galaxy stood out on the platform, waiting for the Abilisk to return to feed on the Anulax batteries. Peyton was holding an old Mattel Electronics Classic Football game she hotwired and saw the creature getting closer.

"Show time, a-holes!" Peyton shouted. They looked at their leader. "It'll be here any second."

"Which will be its loss," Gamora said. The now-twenty-year-old Zehoberei cocked a rifle.

"I thought your thing was a sword?" Peyton asked.

"We've been hired to stop an inter-dimensional beast from feeding on those batteries and I'm going to stop it with a sword?" Gamora asked her friend incredulously.

"It's just swords were your thing and guns were mine," Peyton said, "but I guess we're both doing guns now. I just didn't know that."

Gamora rolled her eyes. However, she looked at Drax, who was the only one who wasn't wearing any of Rocket's Aero Rigs.

"Drax, why aren't you wearing one of Rocket's Aero-Rigs?" Gamora asked.

"I can't," Drax said. "It hurts."

"Hurts?" Gamora asked curiously.

Drax stopped before he could say anything and looked away from Gamora.

"I have sensitive nipples," Drax answered pitifully. Suddenly, Rocket began laughing and mocking Drax by "grabbing" nipples of his own and laughing.

"Oh my nipples hurt. Goodness me!" Rocket cried. He still laughed, with his tears coming down from his hard laughter.

"What about him? What's he doing?" Drax snapped. He was pointing at Rocket, who was hooking up Peyton's walkman and Awesome Mix Vol. 2 tape into speakers.

"I'm tryin' to hotwire this thing so we can listen to tunes while we work," Rocket answered.

"How is that a priority right now?" Drax asked.

"Blame Peyton, she's the one who wants to listen to music!" Rocket snapped pointing at the seventeen-year-old girl.

"No, I've gotta side with Drax on this one," said Peyton.

"Yeah, sure, Pey," Rocket said, winking at his friend. Recently, Rocket has been treating Peyton as the little sister he never had, and would often tease her for the fun of it.

"No, seriously, I side with Drax," Peyton said seriously.

"I understand that Peyton," Rocket said with a smirk and another rapid winks.

"I can clearly see you winking!" shouted Drax in offense.

"Damn it, I must be using my wrong eye," Rocket said.

Peyton and Gamora looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Suddenly, Baby Groot began running in while chasing away the Orloni. He had become that size ever since he sacrificed himself to save his family. Now, he was a baby again, and the family the Guardians had built was really hard raising a child. Groot looked at his friends.

"I am Groot!" he cried to Rocket.

"They were _not_ looking at you funny," Rocket snapped.

The guardians heard the sound of the Abilisk shrieking. They turned to see a gigantic beast with tentacles and giant teeth flying towards them.

"Wow, that's intense," Rocket said.

"Alright, let's give it what we've got," Peyton said.

She activated her mask and her rocket boots, along with Gamora and Rocket following her. Meanwhile, Drax took out his swords and began attacking the creature. Meanwhile, Groot had some trouble hooking up. Just as he played the music, Groot began dancing to "Mr. Blue Sky" by ELO. During his dance routine, Groot was dancing around when Drax came by his side. However, Groot stopped dancing when Drax was looking at him and continued when the muscled-man was back to fighting. Peyton looked as she was fighting the monster.

"Groot!" Peyton shouted. However, one of the tentacles had grabbed onto her.

"PEYTON!" Gamora shouted. "No one eats my friend like that."

She fired at the Abilisk's tentacle as Peyton immediately flew up before she collided with the ground.

Gamora landed and spotted their little friend dancing.

"Groot, get out of the way, you're going to get hurt!" Gamora yelled at Groot, who waved at her. She gave him a smile. "Hi."

She went back to fighting when Groot spotted a bug and put it in his mouth. Rocket came down and was tugging on the bug while hitting his baby friend on the back.

"Spit that out!" he shouted. Groot immediately spit it out. "That's disgusting."

He got back up and fought the beast. After fighting the beast for several minutes, Drax accidentally landed on the speakers. Groot angrily began kicking Drax with his vines and kicked him with his feet. Drax got up, not feeling a thing from Groot.

"The beast's hide is too thick to be pierced from the outside," Drax noticed. "I must cut through it from the inside."

"Huh?" Gamora said. She watched him laugh maniacally with his swords up. "No! No, Drax, wait minute!" He ran before she could finish. "Drax!"

The group watched as Drax was eaten by the beast, leaving several of the Guardians to watch him get eaten by the Abilisk. Peyton's mouth dropped as she made her helmet disappear.

"What is he doing?!" Peyton shouted as she walked towards Gamora.

"He said the skin is too thick to be pierced from the outside so he…" Gamora began.

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"I tried telling him that!"

"The skin is the same level of thickness from the inside as from the outside!"

"I realize that Pey!" Gamora yelled.

Meanwhile, inside the beast, Drax continued to beat its throat with his sword. Peyton noticed the cut one of the people left on the neck.

"There's a cut on its neck, "Peyton said.

Gamora nodded, knowing where her friend was going with this. Peyton looked at Rocket.

"Rocket, you need to look up!" she shouted.

"Got it!" Rocket said. The duo flew up with Peyton quickly putting on her mask. "Alright, you giant sea monkey, up here!"

They continued firing at the monster. The Abilisk continued letting out his fire. Rocket got closer to the creature's neck.

"Look out, Peyton!" Rocket shouted. Peyton flew away as Rocket continuously hit the monster's side. They had it to look up. Meanwhile, down below, Gamora took her rifle and looked through the glass as it focused on his target. However, she found it jammed.

"You got to be kidding me!" Gamora yelled. She took out her retractable sword, Godslayer and began running towards it. She made one jump and plunged her sword into the beast's neck and slid down as the Abilisk bled. Out came Drax, who was covered in its goo.

"Yes!" shouted Drax. "YES! IT WAS I WHO BROUGHT DOWN THIS MIGHTY BEAST!"

Gamora rolled her eyes while Peyton and Rocket came down, giving him a disappointed look. However, the alien continued laughing like crazy. Groot was still mad at Drax for ruining the speakers. He threw a piece of wood at Drax with a madden look. Drax looked at him confused.

"What?" he said.


	16. 14: The Sovereign Are Gonna Kill Us

**I'd advise you to stop reading this story RIGHT NOW if you're not comfortable with the Gamora and Peyton pairing. Otherwise if you don't mind, read on…**

 **Chapter 14: The Sovereign Are Gonna Kill Us**

"What are these things?" Drax said as he wiped the goo off of his skin.

"They're called Anulax Batteries, " Peyton said, putting on her Ravenger leather jacket.

"Harbulary batteries," Drax said with a smile.

"That's nothing at all of what I just said," Peyton said. She didn't notice Rocket was putting the batteries in the pockets. "They're worth a quarter of a million dollars. Now, be careful what you say around the Sovereign people. They're easily offended, and one wrong word, the penalty is death."

"Wow, generous people," Rocket said sarcastically as he followed them out.

The guardians now stood in a great big, golden room where a throne held a golden woman with yellow eyes sitting in the seat.

"We thank you Guardians, for putting your lives on the line," the high priestess Ayesha said. She was a golden woman wearing a headpiece, and sitting on her throne. We could not risk the ives of our Sovereign citizens. "Every citizen is born exactly as designed by the community; impeccable both, physically and mentally. We control the DNA of our progeny, terminating them in birth pods."

"I prefer to make people the old-fashioned way, madam," said Peyton.

"Oh, maybe you could give one of us a history lesson in your cake ways of our ancestors?" said a male guard.

"Of course, for academic purposes." Ayesha added.

"Well, one of us would be honored," Peyton said to both the guard and Ayesha. "In the name of research, I think that could be pretty uh," Peyton looked at Gamora, who was giving her glares. "Pretty repulsive. I'm not into that kind..."

"Oh please, Peyton," Gamora said, she walked past Peyton. "Your people promised us something in exchange for our services. Bring it and we shall gladly be on our way."

The high priestess gestured to the doors, where two sovereign Guards revealed a woman with a hooded cloak. Quickly, they removed her hood to reveal Gamora's sister, Nebula. Peyton noticed the tension in the room.

"Family reunion, yay," Peyton said sheepishly.

"I understand that she is your sister," Ayesha said, eyeing Gamora.

"She is worth no more to me than the bounty for her on Xandar," Gamora snapped. She grabbed onto her sister's cloak and forced her to stand on her face.

"We caught her trying to steal the batteries," Ayesha said. She got out of her seat. "Do with her as you please."

Gamora nodded and began to roughly handle her sister.

"Thank you, High Priestess Ayesha," Peyton said. She bowed and turned around.

"What is your heritage, Miss Quill?" Ayesha asked curiously. Peyton stopped and turned around to answer her former employer.

"My mother was of Earth," Peyton answered.

"And your father?"

"Well, he ain't from Missouri," Peyton said. The subject really pained her, Gamora knew, but she didn't say anything else. "That's all I know. The only father I ever known was a man named Yondu Udonta, although, my dad wasn't much of a father."

"I see it within you, Miss Quill," she said. "An unorthodox genealogy, a hybrid that seems particularly reckless. "

Rocket couldn't believe what he heard.

"Ya know, they told me you people were conceited douchebags!" Rocket said, "but that isn't true at all!"

Peyton looked down at him alarmed as he winked at her.

"Dude," Peyton muttered. She saw the Sovereign people move around.

"Aw shit, I'm using my wrong eye again, aren't I?" Everyone looked at him suspiciously. "I'm sorry that was..." However, he was interrupted by Drax, picking him up and dragging him by his collar. "That was meant to be behind your back."

Drax set him down on the ground as they made their way to the ship.

"Count yourself blessed they didn't kill you," Drax said.

"You're telling me, want some batteries?" asked Rocket, showing the batteries, causing Drax to laugh as they walked out the door.

"Okay, let's head to Xandar and collect that bounty!" Rocket shouted.

Peyton rolled her eyes, as she put on her black skirt on, then her black boots, jeans, and her grey tank top while putting on her. She watched Gamora put bonds on Nebula's wrists.

"Who did she think she was talking about my father like that?" Peyton said.

"Well, I know you're very sensitive about that," Gamora said.

"I wouldn't say I'm _sensitive_ about it," Peyton said. "I just don't know who he is." Peyton took a breath and looked at Gamora. "I'm sorry if it looked like I was flirting with the head guard. I wasn't."

"I don't care if you were," Gamora said. She walked away, dragging her sister with her.

"Well, I know you care, so that's why I'm apologizing!" Peyton cried. "I'm sorry."

"Gamora is not the woman for you, Peyton,' Drax said. Peyton in panic grabbed onto her heart. How did Drax even get there.

"Shadow," Peyton muttered angrily.

"I first met my beloved at a war rally, everyone in the village flailed about dancing except one woman, my Hovat. I knew immediately she was the one for me. The most melodic song in the world could be playing, she wouldn't even tap her foot, wouldn't move a muscle, one might assume she was dead."

"Yeah, I get it, I'm a dancer, Gamora is not," Peyton said, scratching her ear.

"You just need to find a person who is pathetic," Drax said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "like you."

"Hm," Peyton said.

Meanwhile, Gamora was putting her sister in one of their restraints. Nebula looked down at the fruit.

"Give me some of that fruit," Nebula said.

"It's not ripe, and I hate you," Gamora said.

"You hate me? You stole that stone and left me on that barran planet. I will free myself from these shackles and I will kill you."

Gamora looked at her.

"No, you will spend the rest of your days on Xandar, in a cell, wishing you could," Gamora said to her sister. Nebula flinched, trying to scare her. However, Gamora heard the sirens going off and walked into the cockpit where Peyton and Rocket were sitting in their seats.

"That's weird," Peyton said, eyeing the screen. "We have a Sovereign fleet approaching from the rear."

"Why would they do that?" Gamora asked, taking a seat.

"Probably because Rocket stole some of their batteries." Drax muttered.

"Dude!" Rocket snapped. Peyton gave the rodent a wide-eyed look.

"Nope, Rocket did not steal their batteries," Drax said. "What a mystery this is..."

She glared at Rocket and then at Drax. Suddenly, the ship rattled, causing several things to fall out of place.

"What were you thinking?!" Peyton shouted.

"They were really easy to steal," Rocket said.

"That's your defense?" Gamora asked. "I should shackle you with Nebula below the deck."

"Come on, you saw how that priestess talked down to us, even to you, Pey. Now I'm trying to teach her a lesson.

"Oh, I didn't realize your motivation was true altruism, especially on my account," Peyton muttered. "Such a shame the Sovereign didn't realize it, either, and are trying to kill us right now."

"Exactly!" Rocket cried.

"I was being sarcastic!" Peyton shouted.

"Oh, you're supposed to use your sarcastic voice! Now I look foolish," Rocket said in equal amount of sarcasm.

"Can't you just put your bickering on hold _after_ we've survived this massive space battle!" Gamora shouted.

"Good, I want to kill some guys!" Rocket shouted.

"You're not killing anyone; those ships are remotely piloted," Gamora said. Rocket was a little dismayed, but was missing Peyton's glares. However, Peyton was too distracted to deal with Rocket just now. Hopefully they'd get out of this mess alive.


	17. Chapter 15: Daddy's Back

**Chapter 15**

 **Daddy's Back**

The _Milano_ continued to fly not-so-smoothly as the Sovereign People continued hitting the ship that was trying to escape their grasp. Peyton knew that they had to land immediately if they were ever going to escape this mess with the Sovereign alive.

"What's the closest habitable planet, Gamora?" the half-Terran asked. Gamora looked on the screen.

"Berhert," Gamora said.

"How many jumps?"

"Only one, but its forty clicks away, and you need to make it past that asteroid field."

"Oh joy."

"Peyton, to make it through that, you'd have to be the best pilot in the Galaxy," Drax said.

"Lucky for us," Peyton said with a s mile, "I—"

"I AM," Rocket finished for her. Peyton looked at him in anger. Peyton drove the ship through the first feet of the asteroid field after killing off several of the drones after them. Rocket took control the ship, but the _Milano_ was Peyton's ship. She pulled a lever that had her taking control of the ship.

"What are you doing?" Rocket snapped.

"I will have you know, my father gave me this ship when I was ten years old, and I've been flying it ever since," Peyton pointed out.

"Well, I was cybernetically enhanced to pilot a spacecraft.

"You were cybernetically engineered to be a pain in the ass!" Peyton shouted.

"Guys, stop it," Gamora told the girl and the raccoon. However, the two continued to bicker.

"Pey, one night you're going to be lying in bed and feel something squishy," Rocket began, "and you'll go 'What the heck is this', and you'll realize I put a turd in there!"

"You put your turd in my bed, I'll shave you!" Peyton sneered.

"Oh, it won't be mine, Kid," Rocket said. "It'll be Drax's."

Drax laughed loudly.

"I have famously huge turds." Drax said between laughs. He looked at Gamora, who was giving him a glare. "What?"

"We're about to die and you're joking about this," Gamora snapped.

The Sovereign people were still gaining on them, still continuing to follow the Guardians of the Galaxy. One of their engines was hit and they looked on screen. Nebula almost flew out of the vacuum of space. Peyton quickly turned on a golden net that prevented the blue-skinned girl to escape.

* * *

Nebula landed on her stomach, exhausted. The people driving this ship were crazy.

"IDIOTS!" Nebula shouted.

* * *

"Well that's what you get when Peyton flies," Rocket muttered as Peyton gave him a death glare. Gamora threw something at Rocket.

"Ow!" Rocket shouted.

"We still have a sovereign fleet behind us!" Gamora yelled, jerking her head to the window.

* * *

Unknown to the trio, Drax had gotten up and went down to where Nebula and the spacesuits were kept. She tried to reach for one of the fruit but Drax kicked it out of her grasp.

"It's not ripe," Drax said.

He went out with the spacesuit and the gun towards the ship that was trying to kill them. He walked out the door but not before putting up the field so that Nebula wouldn't run out of air. He unlocked the last gate with his suit on with the rope around his waist. Drax ran out the door with his gun at the drone that was controlled by a man named Zylak. Drax could see a crowd going around Zylak, watching the Guardians' downfall.

"Die spaceship!" Drax shouted. He took his gun and fired at the drone, killing it instantly.

* * *

Meanwhile in the cockpit, Groot nearly flew from his spot. However, Peyton quickly grabbed onto Groot around the waist and put him on her shoulder

"Stay there, Groot, sweetie, we're almost out!" Peyton shouted.

The Guardians were so close to getting out of the asteroid field but stopped when the Sovereign Fleet.

"Damn! They went around the asteroid field!" Peyton shouted.

However, one second, the fleet was destroyed in a heartbeat. Suddenly, Rocket saw a white spaceship pass them.

"What is that?" Rocket said, looking through the window to see a man waving at them. "It's a guy."

"NOW PEYTON!" Gamora shouted.

Peyton with the last of her strength flew through the jumping point, with their ship in flames. They were going in hot when their ship collided with the trees. Gamora looked at the screen to see Drax still flying out there from the rope.

"He's still out there?" Gamora said. She ran out the door and past Nebula. Quickly, as the rope holding Drax went out the vent in their ship, Gamora grabbed onto the latch and held on close. Finally, their ship landed not-so-gracefully on the ground as a wing of the _Milano_ fell off. Gamora and Drax were on their backs.

"That was awesome!" Drax shouted.

* * *

The next moment, the Guardians and Nebula were outside the ship

"LOOK AT THIS!" Gamora shouted. "Where's the other half of our ship?!"

"My ship," Peyton corrected.

"Any one of you could have gotten us through that asteroid field had you flown what was between your eyes than what was between your legs!" Gamora shouted, the first statement to Rocket. "Or if you hadn't succumbed to his constant insulting!"

"Please," Peyton said. "If what Rocket had between his legs had a hand, he could have easily..."

"Peyton," Gamora reprimanded her, "we almost died because of your arrogance. "

"Well, he had to steal Anulax batteries!" Peyton shouted, pointing at Rocket.

"You know why I did it, Star-Wench! Huh?!" Rocket yelled at her. Peyton rolled her eyes with a fake smile.

"I'm not gonna answer to Star-Wench," Peyton muttered.

"I did it because I wanted to!" Rocket yelled. "What are we even talking about this for? We just had a little man save us by blowing up fifty ships!"

"How little?" Drax said.

"Uh," Rocket said and brought up his thumb and forefinger close together. "Well, kinda like this?"

"A little one-inch man saved us?" Gamora asked incredulously.

"Well, if he got closer, I'm sure he'd be much larger." Rocket snapped.

"Yeah, that's how eyesight works, you stupid raccoon." Peyton said.

"DON'T CALL ME A RACCOON!" Rocket yelled as he gave her a murderous look.

"I'm sorry, I took it too far." Peyton apologized sincerely. Instead, another word came into her mind. "I meant 'trash panda'."

"Is that better?" Rocket asked.

"I don't know." Drax answered.

"It's worse. It's so much worse," Peyton laughed.

"You b—" Rocket shouted and began attacking her. "I've had enough of you!"

"Well excuse me," Peyton said as the two of them continued fighting. "At least I don't steal batteries just to prove I'm better than someone else!"

"I've never said that, I stole them because that priestess insulted you! Everything I've done so far, Peyton, has been for you and this team!"

"Well, you have a strange way of doing it."

As the raccoon and girl fought, Nebula noticed the white ship from earlier was entering the atmosphere. That meant that someone not worthy of her pedigree was going to attack them. However, Rocket and Peyton were too concerned with fighting as Gamora and Drax tried to break these two apart.

"Unless you and the fox are still arguing, blondie," Nebula said directly to Peyton, "you'd love to know that someone followed you into the jump port."

Quickly, the group and Nebula surrounded each other as the ship began landing.

"Release me from these bonds," Nebula said. "You'll need my help in combat."

"I'm not a fool, Nebula," Gamora said to her sister.

"You're a fool not letting me help you," Nebula said.

"As soon as I let you go, you'll try to kill me," Gamora said.

"No, I won't," Nebula persuaded rather unconvincingly.

"You know, you'd think a deranged super-villain would learn how to lie by now," Peyton muttered, ignoring Nebula's murderous glare.

Suddenly, the strange ship landed in front of the Guardians. They weren't sure how to move or not as the door opened to reveal a man and a young girl, about the same age as Peyton and Gamora. However, she may have been at least a year younger than Peyton, sixteen give or take. Meanwhile, she eyed the guy that looked exactly like Kurt Russel but she didn't think of saying that last part, especially to a strange man who wiped out an entire civilization.

"After all these years I found you." muttered the man in front of her.

"And who are you?" Paige asked, still having her hand on her gun.

"Oh, Peyton you look so much like your mother. Like Meredith," this man said.

"How do you know my mom's name?" Peyton wondered with Gamora having her hand on her sword if this man was planning on attacking Peyton or not.

"Well, it's time to get introductions out of the way, sweetheart," the man said. "My name is Ego, and I'm your dad, Peyton."

Peyton's eyes widen as her mouth dropped.


	18. Chapter 16: A past revealed

**Chapter 16: A Past Revealed**

* * *

On the cold planet of Contraxia, and a pub known as the "Iron Lotus", the Ravager clan led by Yondu Udonta was going crazy, either drinking with their friends or trying to hook up with the women who worked there. However, the only person who hadn't had a good time was Yondu.

Everything was different without his little gal with them. She had not even contacted Yondu this past three months. He just wanted Peyton back, and he wanted to see her again. The only thing he had left of his daughter was her music that he secretly downloaded from her Walkman. And if she ever wanted to come back, he had what they called an "iPod" that everyone on earth was listening to those days. However, his thoughts were interrupted when he heard one of his men calling him down. Yondu looked and noticed an old mentor of his: Stakar Ogord.

However, Ogord was unaware of His former protege's presence. However, he saw Yondu and his eyes immediately went cold like a cobra.

"Stakar Ogord, it's been a long time," Yondu said and beat his chest with one of his hands.

At the sight of Yondu, Stakar's face went pale and his eyes went cold.

"Seems like this establishment is the wrong kind of disreputable," Stakar said. He ignored Yondu calling out his name. He turned away and looked at the matriarch of the house.

"There are a hundred Ravager Factions," Stakar said to the matriarch of the Iron Lotus, "you just lost the business of ninety-nine of them by serving one."

Yondu was more angered than ever. He sent a table falling on its side and chased after Ogord in the snow.

"You can go to hell then!" Yondu shouted, following him. "I don't give a damn what you think of me."

"So what are you following us for?"

"Are you gonna listen to what I got to say?" Yondu shouted.

"I don't have to listen to nothing, you betrayed the code!" Stakar shouted. He looked at Yondu, grabbing the front of his Ravager Coat. "Ravagers don't deal in kids!"

"I told you before; I didn't know what was going on!" Yondu shouted.

"You didn't know, because you didn't want to know, because it made you rich!" Stakar shouted. "I know you abducted Peyton Quill from earth. Instead of putting her back where you found her, like I told her, you kept Peyton as your own daughter!"

"It was for her own good! You know as well as I do what would have happened to my little girl if I had delivered her to her so-called-father, or if I sent her back to earth," Yondu spat out. "I demand a seat on the table. I wear these flames, same as you!"

"You may dress like us, but you'll never hear the hordes of freedom when you die Yondu," Stakar said, "and the colors of Ogord will never flash over your grave." He put hands on the Centaurian's shoulders. "If you think I take pleasure in exiling you, you're wrong. You broke all our hearts."

Yondu had a heart-broken expression as Stakar and his team turned away from the Yondu Ravager Clan. The entire crew was watching the setting take place.

"Unbelievable" Taserface muttered. "First, Udonta's daughter betrays us and Yondu just lets her slip away. We've only followed him because we knew that Yondu wasn't afraid to do what needed to be done. He's gone soft."

"If he's soft, then why are you whispering?" Kraglin snapped.

"You know I'm right Kraglin." Taserface told Kraglin.

"You better be careful, on what you say about our captain or the captain's daughter," Tullk warned him with his gun.

Just at that moment, a very annoyed Yondu watched as a group of Sovereign people were laying out a carpet as a woman with a gold dress and expensive white fur. He rolled his eyes as her servants laid out the carpet in the snow and got it stuck several times. She looked at Yondu with eyes full of rage and determination.

"Yondu Udonta, I have a proposition for you," Ayesha said.

 **Line division**

"I hired Yondu to pick you up after your mother passed away," Ego explained as they sat down and ate dinner. "But, instead of returning you, Yondu kept you. I have no clue as to why."

"I'll tell ya why: I was skinny little girl who could slip into places adults couldn't," Peyton answered sadly. "Made it easier for thieving."

"Well, I've been trying to track you down ever since," Ego said.

Drax was really confused.

"I thought Yondu was your biological father," Drax said.

"What?" Peyton said shocked. "You're trying to tell me that this whole time you thought Yondu was my actual blood relative?"

"You look exactly alike!"

Rocket looked at Drax as if he had grown a second head.

"One's blue!" Rocket said.

"Yondu's not my biological father, he's my _adoptive_ father," Peyton corrected. "Well, he wasn't much of a father anyways. He's the one that abducted me and beat the fudge out of my friends. Not to mention that he threatened to eat me a couple of times.

"After all this time, how did you locate us now?' Gamora asked suspiciously. This was all going way to fast for them.

"Even where I reside, out past the edge of what is known, we heard talk of the woman they called 'Star-Lady'," Ego said.

"I'm not a woman yet," Peyton said. Everyone was shocked she would say something like that before Peyton sipped into her soup.

"Well, what do you say we head out there, now?" Ego asked, looking at his daughter. "You're associates are welcome." He eyed Rocket. "Even that triangular-faced monkey."

Rocket glared at him, but he suddenly went to feel his face. Peyton was still looking at her father with disbelief.

"When we get there, I can show you your unique heritage, and be the father your mother would have wanted me to be," Ego said to his daughter and smiled at her. "Excuse me. I need to take a wiz."

Ego walked away from the group, and when he did, Peyton looked at Gamora in disbelief.

"I'm not buying it," Peyton told her friend.

"Why don't we take a walk?" Gamora asked. Peyton nodded as the girls got up to take a walk.

* * *

Drax was eating uncomfortably as the girl, Mantis was smiling at Drax, or at least, was trying to. The muscled man looked at her.

"What are you doing?" Drax asked.

"Smiling," she said with a fake smile. "I heard that people do that to make people like you."

"Not if you do it like that," Muttered Drax.

"Sorry," Mantis said, her smile melting from her face. "I was raised on Ego's planet alone. I do not understand social interaction."

She looked down to Rocket who was licking his fur. and looked back at Drax. "Can I pet your puppy?"

Drax nodded as Mantis quietly went to pet Rocket's head, but he attempted to bite her hand. Luckily, Mantis moved her hand out of the way and looked hurt at Drax who was laughing.

"That is what I call a practical joke" Drax laughed, and Mantis joined in the laughter herself.

Meanwhile, Gamora and Peyton were further in the forest and out of earshot.

"I mean after all these years, you finally wanted to be my father?!" Peyton said. "For all we know, this could be a trap or something bad..."

"Look, what was that story you once told me about Zardu Hasslefrow?" Gamora said. Peyton gave her a confused look.

"Who?" Peyton asked.

"He owned a magic boat?"

"David Hasslehoff?"

"Right."

"Not a magic boat. A talking car."

"Why did he talk again?"

"To help him fight crime, and to be supportive!"

"Right," Gamora said.

"Why are you bringing this up right now?"

"As a child, you would carry his picture around, and you would tell other children that he was your father."

"I told you this story when I was sedated in the hospital on Xandar," Peyton said. "Why are you reminding me of it again?"

"I _love_ that story," Gamora answered.

"I hated that story," Peyton snapped. "I saw all those girls with their dads, telling them how pretty they were and getting them whatever they want? Well you know how my dad raised me these past ten years? It was more like torture, being taught how to survive every day. He said he was trying to protect me, but...I didn't know if he told the true story or not.

"See that's my point Pey. What if this man is your Hasslehoff?" Gamora asked.

"Well..." Peyton began.

"Come on, just give him the chance," Gamora said to her friend. She took Peyton's hands into hers gently. "And if he turns out to be evil, we'll just kill him."

"Okay," Peyton said slowly. Gamora smiled sympathetically at Peyton and gave her a hug.


	19. Chapter 17: Mantis

**Chapter 17: Mantis**

Peyton told Ego that she and her friends would go to his planet to "check it out". She and Gamora decided to split it up the team. Groot and Rocket would stay behind to watch over Nebula and Drax would go with them to Ego's planet. When Nebula learned that she was being stuck with Rocket, she actually took it better than Gamora thought she was.

"YOU'RE LEAVING ME WITH THAT FOX!?" yelled Nebula.

"He's _**not**_ a fox," Gamora sneered at their prisoner.

She looked at Rocket, who was fixing some parts of the ship.

"Shoot her if she does anything suspicious, or if you feel like it," Gamora told him.

"Alright," Rocket muttered. Gamora looked to see Peyton was saying farewell to Groot.

"Hey, don't look sad, Grootie," Peyton said. She wiped a tear off his face. "We'll be back before you know it. When we return, how 'bout we go to Xandar, maybe get you a treat or somethin'?"

Groot brightened up a little bit.

"I am Groot," he responded.

"Okay." Peyton kissed his forehead and got up. She looked at Gamora, who was smiling at her. "What?"

Gamora shrugged at her friend.

"Nothing," Gamora said. Drax came out of the ship with a lot of backpacks. "Why do you have all that luggage?"

"I don't want Groot playing with my things."

Peyton stopped and went to look at Rocket. She wasn't sure what to say to him. They had a rather complex relationship ever since both of them continued yelling at each other because of the Anulax battery incident. Rocket stopped working on the improvements and looked at her.

"Hopefully, Daddy ain't as obnoxious as you are, Orphan Girl," Rocket said. Peyton gave him a "seriously" look at him.

"What is your goal here? Are you trying to make everybody hate you?" Peyton asked. He gave Peyton a sly smile. "Cuz it's workin'."

Peyton turned away and boarded on the ship as it lifted itself off the ground. On the ship, Peyton was listening to "The Chain" on her Walkman. She hoped the versions she left behind would keep Groot occupied. She worried for him sometimes like he was her own son. Now, she hoped she would have that relationship with her biological father. The memories of her and Yondu slowly faded, and though Peyton loved her adoptive father, she wanted to know who her real father was. Whether it was Yondu or Ego, Peyton would find out who she would call "dad". She also saw Mantis try putting him to sleep earlier. Peyton looked down at David Hasselhoff, the picture she carried since she was a child and looked at him, wondering what the future may bring.

Later, Mantis, Peyton and Drax sat together.

"Hey, can I ask you a personal question?" Peyton asked.

"Oh?" Mantis said curiously and excitedly. "No one's ever asked me a personal question."

"Your antenna, what are they for?" Peyton asked.

"Their purpose?" Mantis inquired.

"Yes. Peyton and I have a bet," Drax said. Peyton looked at him with a weird out expression on her face.

"You're not supposed to say that..." the seventeen-year-old said.

"I say: if you are about to go through a doorway that is too low, your antenna will feel this and keep you from being decapitated," Drax said.

"Right, and if it's anything other than specifically being decapitated by a doorway, I win," Peyton said.

"They are not for feeling doorways!" Mantis said.

"Ha!" Peyton said, happy at her victory while Drax muttered, "Darn it!"

"I think they have something to do with my empathic abilities." Mantis continued

"What are those?" Gamora asked.

"If I touch someone, I can feel their feelings," Mantis explained.

"You read minds?" Peyton asked.

"No. Telepaths know thoughts," Mantis said. "Empaths feel feelings, emotions. May I?"

Peyton reluctantly showed her hand to Mantis, who gently touched it.

"You feel... love," Mantis said.

"Yeah, I guess I feel a general, unselfish love for just about everybody around me," Peyton asked.

"No! Romantic love!"

"No, no I don't..." Peyton said.

"For her!" She pointed at Gamora, which shocked her.

"No I don't!" Peyton said.

"She just told everyone your deepest, darkest secret!" Drax chuckled.

"Dude, come on. I think you're overreacting!" Peyton shouted.

"You must be so embarrassed!" Drax shouted, still laughing. "Do me! Do me, do me!"

Mantis put her hand on the twenty-six-year old's chest and began laughing as much as Drax was.

"I have never felt such humor!" Mantis shouted.

"Unbelievable," Peyton muttered and looked at Gamora.

Mantis went to touch Gamora, who quickly grabbed onto Mantis' wrist. Gamora didn't want anyone to know about her feelings for Peyton, mostly because she didn't want Peyton to know that herself. It just had to be her story. The twenty-year-old Zehoberei gave her a deadly glare.

"Touch me and the only thing you'd feel is a broken jaw," Gamora said.

Mantis was sad. She then looked at Gamora.

"I can also alter emotions to some extent."

"Yeah, like what?" Peyton asked.

"If I touch someone who is sad, I can ease them into contentment for a short while." said Mantis. "I can make a stubborn person compliant."

Gamora raised her eyebrow.

"However, I only use my powers to help my master sleep. You see, he has always been lying awake at night, worrying about his progeny."

She looked at Peyton, as though to say something, but Mantis couldn't know for sure if she should tell them whether or not what was going on. Peyton nearly questioned why, but she knew for a fact her eyes went soft and her face fell. Her dad worrying about her? That would be a first since her abduction by Yondu. However, her question disappeared when Drax interrupted the moment.

"Ooh, do one of those on me!" Drax cried. The twenty-one-year-old gently placed her hand on his forehead.

"Sleep," she said gently. Quickly Drax fell asleep, and for now, that's how Gamora and Peyton wanted him to stay for the time being.


	20. Chapter 18: Mutiny and Living planets

**Chapter 18: A Mutiny among the Ravagers**

The Ravagers of the Udonta Ravager Clan slowly made their way towards the Milano, h oping to find Peyton and her so-called team, the Guardians of the Galaxy. Hearing from the music, they heard Rocket humming to "Southern Nights" by Glen Campbell. One of the Ravagers ate a spider that was crawling down the tree as they slowly approached the _Milano._

However, Rocket was far from the camp. He had let Gropt stay with a sleeping Nebula. He hid in the trees as the Ravagers past. One of the Ravagers stepped on the device he left on the floor. Suddenly, darts shot out from the trees and inhaled through the Pirates skin. They all fell to the floor conscious and Rocket laughed. He began bouncing off the trees and watched as Yondu's men stood on the hovercraft part. He began pushing buttons. As one side bounced up, the other group went down. Rocket then landed on the third party's shoulders and planted metal caps on the side of their heads. Rocket pushed the button that shocked all the men unconscious after shots of electricity ran through their bodies.

He landed in a meadow in the forest and found himself surrounded by two Ravagers. He fought them off by Landon g on one of the guy's shoulder. the other component shot at Rocket, but the raccoon jumped off Onto the other man's shoulders and twisted his neck. At first, the ravager Rocket was on teitched but Rocket knocked him out eith one swift move of his paw. Suddenly, Rocket heard a whistle, a very familiar whistle. Yondu's Yaka Arrow was floating over him.

"Oh crap," Rocket said.

Suddenly, he came face-to-face with Yondu Udonta. What was that clown doing here?

"Hey there, Rat," Yondu said with a smirk with his companions gathering around them.

""How's it going, you blue idiot?" Rocket shot back.

"Not so bad." Yondu began explaining. "We got ourselves a pretty good little gig here. This golden gal with quite a high opinion of herself... has offered us a large sum to deliver you and your pals over to her... because she wants - to kill y'all."

"I tell you, it was pretty easy to find you. I put a tracer on the Milano back there... during the war over Xandar, you know, in case any of ya caused funny business my darlin' little girl."

All the Ravagers around him laughed. Rocket sighed, now knowing what Yondu's intentions were.

"You should tell Gamora that statement." Rocket thought saying but chose not to. He sighed in defeat.

"Just give me your word you won't hurt Groot," Rocket said sadly. "And I'll tell you where the batteries are."

"Lucky for you, my word doesn't mean squat," Yondu said. Everyone laughed.  
" Otherwise, I'd actually hand you over.r"

"OTHERWISE YOU'D WHAT?!" Taserface shouted. Everyone looked at him.

"We'll take them batteries. They're worth what? A quarter mill on the open market?"

"That Priestess offered us a million. A quarter is only one third of that!" Taserface uttered.

"A quarter ain't a third," Yondu began.

"A quarter is 25," Gef said. Yondu shook his head at the stupidity of his men. "We can't even buy a pair of boots with 25 units."

"The point is," Yondu shouted. "We ain't so stupid in helpin' kill the Guardians of the Galaxy. Damn Nova Corps will be all over us."

"That ain't right," Kraglin said, surprising everyone. Especially Yondu and Rocket. "I just gotta say this one time Captain: no matter how many times Peyton betrays you, you protect her like that none of the rest of us matter. And I'm the one who always sticks up for the both of ya!"

"Take it easy, Kraglin," Tullk told Kraglin.

"Damn straight lad, he's gone soft, said Taserface. "Suppose it's time for a change in leadership."

The Ravagers opposing Yondu pointed their guns at him and the Ravagers siding with Yondu pointed their guns at their former teammates.

"Now gentlemen, there must be an easier way to settle this," Rocket said to the Ravagers, "or a violent way, when I am standing over there."

He pointed to a woodland area. Yondu had his arrow threatening hovering above him...until a bolt of shot fire knocked the red fin out of Yondu's head and the Captain fell unconscious. Rocket glared at Nebula, who had easily disabled his fin. She preceded in hitting Rocket with her stun gun, sending him flying the other direction. All the Ravagers looked at her terrified.

"Well, hello, boys," Nebula said. She took the fruit she wanted earlier and took a bite. However, as soon as it got in her mouth, Nebula had to agree with her sister from earlier. She spit it out.

"It's not ripe," Nebula said.

* * *

Peyton sat alone in the spaceship listening to the music on her Walkman. My Sweet Lord by George Harrison began playing. She knew this one was her mother's favored song, after "Brandy" by looking Glass. She heard Gamora call her up. Peyton stopped her music as she, Mantis, Gampra, Drax and Ego stood on a platform that floated out of the ship and over the planet's plain.

Welcome, everyone, to my world," Ego said with cheerfulness in his voice."

"Wow. You have your own planet?" Peyton asked.

"Come on. No larger than your Earth's Moon." Ego said to his daughters question.

"Humility. I like it." Drax said with a smile. " I, too, am extraordinarily humble."

The small pod landed near two water fountains. The left their platform and headed up to a glass building. Gamora got more and more suspicious about Peyton's newly found father. She had told Peyton that they would kill her father if ego was evil and Gamora wasn't going to stand down if it came to that. She would protect Peyton no matter what. So, she began asking questions.

You own a planet and can destroy two dozen spaceships without a suit. What are you exactly? I'm what's called a Celestial, sweetheart.

Peyton's mouth dropped.

A Celestial, like a god?" Peyton asked. Ego turned and smiled at her.

"Mmm, small "g," dear. At least on the days I'm feeling humble as Drax," Ego laughed.

They entered a room filled with pods and graphics explaining Ego's origin.

"I don't know where I came from exactly. First thing I remember is flickering... adrift in the cosmos utterly... and entirely alone.:" He showed the guardians a picture of a large brain.

"Over millions of years... I learned to control the molecules around me. I grew smarter and stronger. And I continued building from there... layer by layer... the very planet you walk on now."

His next model had the formation of his planet.

"But I wanted more. I desired... meaning. "'There must be some life out there in the universe, besides just me', I thought. And so, I set myself the task of finding it. I created what I imagined biological life to be like... down to the most minute detail."

Did you make a penis? Dude! What is wrong with you? If he is a planet, how could he make a baby with your mother? He would smush her!

"Drax, I don't need to hear how my parents..." petition began.

"Why?" Drax asked her. "when I was your age, Peyton, my father would tell the story of impregnating my mother every winter solstice."

"That's disgusting."

"It was beautiful. You Earthers have hang-ups."

Peyton rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Drax, I got a penis." Ego said.

"Ha! Thank you!"

"It's not half bad."

"Oh."

Drax looked down to Ego's area with Gamora that close to smack him upside the head.

"I've also got pain receptors, and a digestive system... and all the accompanying junk. I wanted to experience what it truly meant to be human... as I set out amongst the stars... until I found... what I sought. Life. I was not alone in the universe after all."

"When did you meet my mother?" Peyton asked. Ego looked at Peyton and smiled.

" Not long after." Ego answered. Peyton Looked to notice the model of her parents together. "It was with Meredith that I first experienced love. I called her my river lily. And from that love, Peyton...you."

The picture changed tho one of her pregnant mother and an x- ray showong Peyton as a fetus.

"I have searched for you for so long." Ego said pitifully." And when I heard of a girl from Earth... who held an Infinity Stone in her hand without dying... I knew you must be the daughter of the woman I loved."

"If you loved her, why did you leave her?" Peyton shot. Get biological father looked heartbroken, refuse to answer.


	21. Chapter 19 Fathers and Daughters Vol 1

_**Chapter 18**_

 **Fathers and Daughters Vol. 1**

Yondu had to watch his men that stayed by his side get launched out of airlock with their former teammates mocking those in their final moments. He hadn't felt so weak before in his entire life. No matter how many time people had pleaded, Yondu felt like he could do nothing about it. They took his fin, his arrow, and he had lost his companions and his little girl.

Wherever Peyton was now, Yondu hoped she was safe and protected, far away from the mutiny that had been started. Taserface came back and grasped onto Yondu's ear. Rocket couldn't do anything. he was tied down in a chair just like Yondu and Groot was in a cage.

"You're the one what killed those men by leading them down the wrong path," Taserface sneered. "Because you're weak and stupid! "

Taserface punched Yondu in the face and then in the abdomen. **(A/N: grimacing right now as I write this sentence)**

"It's time for the Ravagers... to rise once again to glory with a new captain... Taserface!"

All The Ravagers around them began laughing and shouting. Taserface was laughing when he heard Rocket laugh harder than most of them. Everyone (besides Yondu) faced the obviously _not_ a raccoon

As soon as Rocket's laughing calmed down, he remained smiling.

"You're name is Taserface?" Rocket laughed.

"It's metaphorical!" Taserface laughed.

"Yeah!" the Ravagers shouted.

"For what?" Rocket asked curiously.

"For it is a name what strikes fear..." Taserface answered. "into the hearts of anyone what hears it."

Everyone of the Ravagers muttered, definitely sure it wasn't that scary of a name. It was rather quite laughable.

"Okay, okay," Gef said.

"Okay..." Rocket said with a smile. "Whatever you say."

"You shut up." Taserface hissed while holding out his dagger. "You're next."

He turned to Yondu and pointed his dagger at his cheek.

"Udonta, I have waited a long time to do..." he began

The Ravager captain stopped when Rocket was snickering, but turning it into a fake cry.

"What?!" Taserface snapped.

"I'm sorry. I am so sorry!" Rocket answered. "I just keep imagining you waking up in the morning, sir...looking in the mirror and then

in all seriousness saying to yourself..." he said in a gruff tone, "Hey, you know what would be a really kick-ass name?' Taserface!"

Rocket laughed with the Ravagers around them trying not to laugh. In fact, Gef looked like he was going to cry while holding his laughter.

"That's how I hear you in my head!" Rocket continued. "What was your second choice? - Scrotum Hat?"

The Ravagers couldn't hold back their laughter any more. They laughed so hard at their captive, that none of them were expecting Taserface to put his dagger on Rocket's throat.

"New plan. We're killing you first," Taserface sneered.

"Well, dying is certainly better than having to live an entire life as a moronic shitbag who thinks Taserface is a cool name," Rocket said with Taserface's breathing getting heavier.

Meanwhile Nebula, who was watching the hole thing had enough.

"That's enough killing for today." Nebula said.

The Ravagers backed down afraid of her as Nebula got off of her spot in the corner and approached him.

"I thought you were the biggest sadist in the galaxy." Taserface sneered.

"That was when Daddy was paying my bills. The Priestess wants to kill the fox herself. And he has bounties on his head in at least 12 Kree provinces. I assure you I am not as easy a mark as an old man without his magic stick or a talking woodland beast. I want ten percent of the take..."

Taserface glared at her.

"And a couple more things," she added.

"We got a whole box of hands if that one don't work out," Kraglin told Nebula.

He led her to the M-ship she was going to use. Nebula had new clothes, being clad in red leather from head to toe, red boots, and a new robotic hand that the Sovereign had taken from her.

"It is fine," Nebula said as she fixed her hand.

"You think them Kree is gonna execute the captain?"

"The Kree consider themselves merciful. It will be painless."

Kraglin couldn't let this live down in him.

"Well, here it is," Kraglin said, leading her to a full view of the ship.

"It's the best ship we got. Location of Ego's planet in the nav. We'll wire you the 10% once we's paid." He looked at her curiously. "What are you gonna do with your share?"

"As a child, my father would have Gamora and me battle one another in training," Nebula answered, her eyes going soft, as if she wanted to cry. However, she couldn't cry because of her implants.

Thanos took her feelings away along time ago. "Every time my sister prevailed, my father would replace a piece of me with machinery, claiming he wanted me to be her equal. But she won... again and again, and again, never once refraining." The anger for Gamora raged on in Nebula with her blood boiling.

"So after I murder my sister... I will buy a warship with every conceivable instrument of death. I will hunt my father like a dog, and I will tear him apart slowly, piece by piece, until he knows some semblance of the profound and unceasing pain I know every single day."

Kraglin looked at her very terrified. He could sympathize with Nebula just a little bit, but he and Peyton never had that sibling relationship while growing up. He had his eyes wide and his mouth opened.

"Yeah..." Kraglin said. "I was talking about, like, a pretty necklace. Or a nice hat. Something to make the other girls go, he spoke in a shrilly voice, "'Ooh, that's nice!' Anyways, happy trails."

He pat on Nebula's shoulder, and she shook off what was left of Kraglin's hand on her shoulders.

 _ **Ego's Planet…**_

Peyton and her dad were finally alone in the courtyard of Ego's palace.

"My mother told everyone my father was from the stars," Peyton said looking at a statue of her mother in the middle of the courtyard. Ego looked at her confused.

"She had brain cancer, so everyone thought she was delusional."

"Peyton..." Ego began.

"Listen, I'd love to believe all of this, I really would," Peyton answered. "But you left... the most wonderful woman ever... to die alone."

She started walking away but her father turned to her.

"I didn't want to leave your mother, Peyton." Ego cried. "If I don't return regularly to my planet... and the light within it... this form will wither and perish."

"So why didn't you come back? Why did you send Yondu? A criminal, of all people, to come and fetch me?"

"I loved your mother, Peyton! I couldn't stand to set foot on an Earth... where she wasn't living! You can't imagine what that's like!"

"I know exactly what that feels like, dad!" Peyton yelled at the top of her lungs. " I had to watch her die!"

Ego and Peyton looked at each other, silence surrounding them.

"Over the millions and millions of years of my existence, I've made many mistakes, Peyton. But you're not one of them. Please give me the chance to be the father she would want me to be. There's so much that I need to teach you about this planet... and the light within. They are a part of you, Peyton."

"What do you mean?"

"Give me your hands, daughter. Here," ego said. He gently cupped her hands together. "Hold them like that. Now, close your eyes and concentrate. Take your brain to the center of this planet."

She did as she was told but opened her eyes to see blue light come from her hands.

"Yes!"

"Whoa!" Peyton gasped. The light disappeared.

"Yes! It's okay. Just relax. Concentrate. You can do it. Bring it back"

Peyton closed her eyes and felt the blue light come back. However instead of falling back, the light came back

" Yes! Yes, now shape it." Peyton began shaping her molecule. "Feel that energy." She smiled as she formed a ball.

"Yes. You're home. Peyton..."

Peyton threw the ball to her father. He shaped it to be more of a ball and threw it at her. Peyton grabbed it and began throwing the ball with her dad, like she always dreamed it.

* * *

Drax and Mantis sat on the steps of Ego's palace. The man looked at the young woman wondering what her story was.

"How did you get to this weird, dumb planet?"

"Ego found me in my larva state. Orphaned on my homeworld. He raised me by hand, and kept me as his own."

"So you're a pet?" Drax asked her.

"I suppose." Mantis said sadly.

"People usually want cute pets. Why would Ego want such a hideous one?" Mantis looked at Drax sadly.

"I am hideous?"

"You are horrifying to look at. Yes."

Mantis' face faltered and Drax simply told her gently, "But that's a good thing. When you're ugly, and someone loves you... you know they love you for who you are. Beautiful people never know who to trust."

"Well, then I'm certainly grateful to be ugly." Mantis said. Memories of Drax's young daughter entered his minds and his reminder of how he and Kamaria both went down to bond by the lakes of their homeworld. He looked at the pools in front of them.

"Those pools, they remind me of a time when I took my daughter to the forgotten lakes of my homeworld," Drax said, remembering her very warm smile. "She was like you."

"Disgusting?" Mantis said with a smile.

"Innocent."

Mantis reached out to know what Drax was feeling. Suddenly, Mantis began...crying. He was mourning for that little girl Drax could feel. While Mantis was crying, Drax remained completely calm. She had changed her mood. Mantis truly felt like she already knew him. She took her hand of Drax's shoulder, and remained silent for a moment.

"Drax," Mantis said to the man. He looked down at her. "There's something I must tell you."

Suddenly, the doors opened. Mantis stopped herself from looking at Gamora. She looked in between Drax and Mantis, both friends looking at Gamora.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"This gross bug lady is my new friend." said Drax, gesturing to Mantis.

"I'm learning many things, like I'm a pet and ugly," Mantis said with a smile.

You're not ugly," Gamora said shaking her head. She looked at Drax to reprimand him. "Drax!"

"What are you talking about?" Drax said. Gamora ignored him and looked at Mantis.

"Mantis..." Gamora said. "Can you show us where we'll be staying?"

Mantis led Drax and Gamora to their guest quarters. Gamora was getting more suspicious as they stayed there longer. There was just something very different about Ego. She didn't have this problem with Yondu when she first met him. In fact, Yondu tried to kill her with the Yaka Arrow in order to teach Peyton a lesson. However, with Yondu, Gamora learned through this entire time she knew Yondu would never hurt Peyton, but with Ego...she just wasn't sure.

"Why are there no other beings on this planet?" Gamora asked Mantis.

"The planet is Ego." Mantis said. "A dog would not invite a flea to live on his back."

"And you're not a flea?"

"I'm a flea with a purpose. I help him sleep."

Gamora stopped Mantis from going any further and asked her, "What were you about to say to Drax before I walked out?"

Mantis' eyes faltered away from Drax.

"Nothing." Mantis said. "Your quarters are this way."

Gamora looked at Drax, and both of them could agree that Mantis was indeed hiding something. Both of them turned to follow Mantis to their quarters.

* * *

Rocket and Yondu were thrown onto the ground of the cargo hold by their Ravager captors. The cell doors were closed with Taserface grinning sadistically.

"We deliver you to the Kree in the morning," Taserface said. "Neither one of you will last much longer after that."

Rocket walked up to the doors of the cells while their captors walked away.

"Okay, Taserface. Hey, tell the other guys we said... 'Hi,' Taserface!"

Taserface rolled his eyes holding back his cool. The trio of Ravagers walked away.

"What about this little plant? Can I smash it with a rock?

"No, Gef. It's too adorable to kill, Taserface said. "Take it to the tailor."

Rocket turned to Yondu, who was leaning up against the wall.

"No offense, but your employees are a bunch of jerks," Rocket said.

"I was a Kree battle slave for 20 years when Stakar freed me," Yondu began, remembering like it was yesterday. "He offered me a place with the Ravagers. He said all I needed to do was adhere to the code. But I was young... and greedy, and stupid. Like you stealing those batteries."

" That was mostly Drax," Rocket said.

"Me and Stakar and the other captains... we weren't so different from you and your friends. The only family I ever had. When I broke the code... they exiled me. This is what I deserve."

"Slow down, drama queen. You might deserve this, but I don't. We gotta get outta here."

"Where's Peyton?"

"She went off with her other old man," said Rocket.

"Ego?"

"Yeah. It's a day for dumbass names."

Yondu smiled showing his yellow teeth. Rocket gave a mock one.

"You're smiling. And for a second, I got a warm feeling," Rocket said. "But then it was ruined by those disgusting-ass teeth."

Yondu's smile disappeared. He gave Rocket a glare.

"You like a professional asshole or what?" Yondu asked.

"Pretty much a pro. Why didn't you deliver Quill to Ego like you promised?"

"Cause, she was an innocent child, and she became my little girl two weeks within her stay aboard this ship."

"That ain't what she told me. She told me it was because she was skinny. Couldn't get into places you couldn't get. Good for thieving."

"My little girl doesn't know the full story. That's what I told her, rat. It was the only way to keep her safe. I'm thinking she's in more trouble than you think she is. Can't keep Peyton around her father for too long."

Rockets eyes immediately went cold.

"Yes, but first, we got to get out of here!" Rocket said, suddenly worried over his friends. No way in hell would he let someone hurt his friends, especially someone like Peyton. Ever!

"I've got a plan, but we're gonna need your little friend."

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter has been updated with scenes I forgot to add while writing this chapter. In fact, this has to be the longest chapter in this entire story. Also I plan on doing a series of one-shots, or missing moments that I didn't add in this story. It will be called _Hooked on a Feeling: The Missing Moments_**

 **Special Thanks for supporting this fiction and helping with mistakes:** **warlocktoungue ;** **I-AM-THE-LOVE-MONKEY;**

 **samanthatm;**

 **blueorchid7 ;**

 **anissa;**

 **swim5433;**

 **madsterford5;**

 **Arwen the Storyteller;**

 **Sparda**


	22. Chapter 20: Planning a Jail Break

**Chapter 22: Planning a Prison Break**

* * *

Groot sodden in alcohol walked past the many sleeping Ravagers and found himself several inches from Rocket's and Yondu's cell. He had been fit with red Ravager jumpsuit that was very uncomfortable and the members of Yondu's Ravager Clan kicked him and poured their wine on top of the tree-like creature.

"Pst! Hey twig, come'ere!" Yondu whispered in his "fatherly" voice. Rocket was shocked to see how beat up and wet Groot had been. It made him want to cry.

"Oh man, what did they do to you?" Rocket asked. Groot just responded with pouted lips and a tear or two coming down his face.

"You want to help us get out of here?" Yondu asked, speaking in voices when Peyton was little. Groot nodded slowly. "There's something I need you to get, and bring back to me. In the captain's quarters, there's a prototype fin. The thing I wore on my head. It's in the drawer next to the bunk, and it's red. You got it?"

Groot nodded and smiled happily. He ran away with Yondu giving Rocket a confident smile.

* * *

Groot returned with underwear, holding it up for them to see.

"That's my underwear," Yondu said.

"Yeah, I was pretty sure he didn't know what you were talking about," Rocket said. "You have to explain it more carefully."

Yondu sighed heavily and regained his composure and looked down to Groot.

"It's a prototype fin." Yondu said through gritted teeth. He held the venom out of his voice and gave Groot a coerced smile.

* * *

Groot returned but not with Yondu's red fin. No, it was rather an Orloni tied up in Groot's vines.

"That's an Orloni," Rocket said. "It's a fin, Groot!"

"You explain it this time." Yondu said annoyed.

"Alright..." Rocket said and opened his mouth to speak.

Groot returned with an eye.

"That's Vorker's eye. He takes it out when he sleeps," said Yondu, looking at the magnetic eye and then at Groot. "Go, look again."

"But leave the eye here." Rocket said.

Yondu looked at Rocket as if he grew a second head.

"Why?" Yondu asked confused.

"He's gonna wake up tomorrow, and he's not gonna know where his eye is!" Rocket shouted. He laughed and touched Yondu's knee while falling onto his own, and continued laughing hard. Yondu shook his head and jerked his head to put it back where he found it. Groot went to look again.

* * *

Groot came with the wrong thing: a giant metal desk. Yondu threw his hands up in exasperation.

"That's a desk," Rocket said, trying to keep his patience. He gestured with his hands. "We told you it was this big!"

* * *

Later, Groot came with the wrong item again: a cut off toe.

"Tell me you guys have a refrigerator somewhere with a bunch of severed human toes," Rocket said, looking at Peyton's adoptive father. He shook his head. "Okay, then let's just agree never to discuss this.

"The drawer you're trying to open has this symbol on it, alright?" Yondu said, holding it up. Groot slowly puts the badge on his head.

"What? No!" Yondu said, getting angry by the minute.

"He thinks you want him to wear it as a hat," Rocket answered.

" That's not what I said!" Yondu shouted.

"I am Groot." Groot said.

"...He's relieved you don't want him to," Rocket said.

"I am Groot!"

"...He hates hats."

"I am Groot..."

"On anyone, not just himself."

"I am Groot."

"One minute you think someone has a weird shaped head, next you realize it's because part of that head is shaped like a hat! That's why you don't like hats?!

Yondu really didn't have time for this. His adoptive daughter was in trouble, and they had to get to her before Ego could do harm to her.

"This is an important conversation right now?" Yondu said annoyed. "If you hadn't noticed, we're still in here while my kid's in danger."

"What do you mean mortal danger?" Rocket asked. Yondu had a lot of explaining to do, but before he could, they sent Groot to look again. Groot went back into Yondu's ship, sneaking onto the bed where Taserface was on. Groot looked at the drawer nearby and then looked down at the badge Yondu had given him. He took out his arms and began watching it grow. He grabbed onto a yo-yo and smiled.

"That ain't it," Kraglin said. And Groot's eyes went wide.

* * *

The red fin was thrown at Yondu's feet. He looked up to see Kraglin standing there. There were no words between both Captain and First Mate. Kraglin was very sad as both f them gazed at each other.

"I'm sorry, Yondu. I didn't mean to lead a mutiny, or get Peyton in trouble," Kraglin apologized. "They killed all my friends."

"Fire up the Quadrant," Yondu said. Kraglin gave a short nod and beat his chest as he left Groot back on the cell. Groot went back onto Groot's shoulder.

"One more thing," Rocket said. "Got any of Peyton's old music?"

Kraglin gave Rocket a very confused look.


	23. Chapter 21: An Unspoken thing

**Two updates in two days in a row. That never happens. Plus, the two updates are an apology for keeping this on a short hiatus. I was just adjusting to my first few weeks of college and needed time to cope with it. So, now, I'm back at writing and expect to finish this entire fan-fiction before the end of this week.**

 **Enjoy reading. I'll have a third chapter updated today.**

* * *

 **Chapter 21: An Unspoken thing**

The first five seconds of "Come A Little Bit Closer" by Jay and the Americas began playing. The ravagers guarding Udonta's, Groot's and Rocket's cells heard the sound of the music coming from there and unlocked the cell. However, they weren't expecting Rocket to put the red fin onto Yondu's head where his once shortened fin was at. He summoned the arrow with a sharp whistle and sent it through the two mutineers. He summoned the arrow back to him and held onto it. Rocket saw the guns and took them with a smile in him.

Many moments later, Groot Rocket and Yondu were in the security room, laughing and watching their arrow and shots as they killed many of the mutineers of Taserface. Yondu, stopped, looking at the man who continued what Kraglin inadvertently started. That man had wronged Yondu since the beginning of time and even had threatened his daughter's life when he willingly would give her and the other Guardians to Ayesha. Taserface deserved to suffer more than the other mutineers.

Yondu sent an arrow pass Taserface and sent it into the tanks. Rocket stopped laughing and growled at Yondu.

"You maniac!" Rocket sneered. He watched as all the screens set ablaze. "The entire ship is going to blow!"

"Not the whole ship," Yondu said. He whistled and called his arrow back in its holster. Rocket and Yondu made their way into the ship. Kraglin was standing there, waiting for his captain's orders.

"Release the quadrant!" Yondu shouted.

" Aye, Captain!" Kraglin said. He pulled the lever and the ship took off from the now destroyed _Eclector_.

Rocket was more determined. He just had to save Peyton. Sure, they didn't get on the right foot when Peyton, Gamora and Drax left for Ego's Planet, but Peyton was his best friend (behind Groot of course), she was Yondu's daughter, and she was Kraglin's sister. They wouldn't live if something bad happened to Peyton.

"Where to, Captain?" Kraglin asked. They didn't notice Rocket searching for the coordinates for Ego's planet

"Ego," Rocket said.

"No, boy!" Yondu shouted, but it was too late. He pressed onto the button. "It ain't healthy for a mammalian body to hop more than 50 jumps at a time."

"I know that," said Rocket with a mischievous smile. Groot was smiling with him.

"We are about to do 700!" Yondu yelled. Rocket's smile disappeared, shocked what Yondu had just said. Soon, everyone began screaming and their faces disfigured, changing shape every step of the way.

* * *

… **Ego's planet…**

"So, I guess this could all be mine someday," Peyton said, looking her father's planet. Meanwhile, Gamora was trying and trying to contact Rocket. However, every time she did, all she heard was the sound of statics.

"Rocket? Rocket, are you there?" Gamora said, but he didn't answer. Peyton came dancing and began tugging on her friend's arm.

"What are you doing, Peyton?" Gamora asked.

"Come on, Gam, dance with me," Peyton said.

"I don't have time—" Gamora began.

"This is Sam Cooke, one of Earth's greatest musicians" Peyton said. "And it'd be a real pleasure for my best friend to dance with me."

"Fine," Gamora said. She put the transmitter down and let Peyton take the lead. Both of them smiled as they both danced to each other.

"Drax thinks you're not a dancer," the shorter girl told the taller one.

"If you tell anyone about this, Pey, I will kill you," Gamora joked.

"Yeah, sure you will," Peyton said. After a while of dancing, Peyton looked at Gamora. The two girls were still stuck twirling around. "How long are we gonna go about this unspoken thing?"

"What unspoken thing?" Gamora asked.

"Oh, you know, like Cheers," Peyton said. "Sam and Diane... a guy and a girl on a TV show who dig each other... but never say it because if they do, the ratings would go down... sort of thing."

"Peyton, there's no unspoken thing."

"Well, it's a catch-22, because if you said it, then it would be spoken... and you would be a liar. So, by not saying it... you are telling the truth, and admitting that there is."

No, that's not what I..." She broke away from Peyton. "What we should be discussing right now is something about this place. It doesn't feel right."

The two girls walked into the room

"What are you talking about? You're the one who wanted me to come here!"

"That girl Mantis...she's afraid of something."

"Why are you trying to take this away from me?"

"I'm not trying..." Gamora sat on the couch.

"He's my father. He's blood."

"Yeah?" Gamora asked as she got up to the door. "You have blood on Earth and you never wanted to return there."

"Again, you made me come here! And Earth is the place where my mother died in front of me."

"No, it's because that place is real, and this is a fantasy."

"This is real! I'm only half human, remember?"

"That's the half I'm worried about."

"Oh, I get it. You're jealous... because I'm part-god, and you like when I'm the weak one."

"No, that's not what..." Gamora said.

"Just forget it!" Peyton shouted. The two girls looked each other in the eye. Gamora was fed up with this teenage girl. This was not the Peyton that Gamora met and it wasn't the girl she fell in love with.

Gamora turned and said, "I haven't been able to reach Rocket. I'm gonna go outside, and I'm gonna try and get a signal."

Peyton, still angry, turned and pointed an accusing finger at her friend. She watched Gamora heading to

"You know what? This is not Cheers after all! This is whatever the show is where one person is willing... to open themselves up to new possibility, and the other person is a jerk... who doesn't trust anybody! It's a show that doesn't exist. That's why it would get zero ratings!"

"I don't know what Cheers is!"

"I finally found my family. Don't you understand that?"

"No, you already had," Gamora snapped. She stepped up to Peyton. "Peyton, you've forgotten who your family was. You've forgotten who your dad and your brother were." She was nearly crying when she gently put her hand on Peyton's cheek. "And you've forgotten who you are."

Peyton expected a slap. However, instead Gamora turned away and stormed away heartbroken.


	24. Chapter 22: Gamora and Nebula

**Okay, I lied, there are now two more updates today.**

 **Chapter 22: Gamora and Nebula**

Gamora sat alone in the field, trying to think of what she and Peyton had done to each other. This was the girl's first fight in a millennium. Of course, their first fight resulted in Gamora attacking Peyton and stealing the Orb from her to sell to the Collector. She tried thinking, but two cattails kept rubbing up against each other. Gamora twitched her gaze in the cattails' direction, took her sword and cut off their heads. She kept muttering to herself, wondering what to do with Peyton now.

However, her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the sound of an M-ship coming. Gamora looked up, wondering what a Ravager ship was doing this far. However, as the ship grew closer, Gamora's ocular implants made her see it was Nebula in advance. Gamora began running as Nebula continued to fire. Gamora quickly ducked down as the ship flew past her, and Nebula could no longer hit Gamora.

"Psychopath!" Gamora shouted, and Nebula came back. She continued running as Nebula's ship tried to go through the cave Gamora retreated in. Nebula lost a firing engine and crash-landed up ahead. Gamora saw her sister was trapped and took up the gigantic rifle and hotwired it from a few tricks from Rocket. She continued to hit Nebula's ship. Gamora stopped herself from firing and quickly rushed to her sister. She removed the rest of the rubble and put her arm around her sister. Nebula broke free. Gamora dragged Nebula away, but both girls were thrown back. No words were spoken between the two sisters, and Nebula took advantage and began struggling with Gamora. She took the sword out of Gamora's belt and brought it up to go for the kill.

"Are you kidding me?" Gamora shouted. Nebula began choking her sister and went for the kill. Instead, Nebula growled and threw her sister back. Gamora breathed in and out.

"I win." Nebula said with a sadistic smile. "I win. I bested you in combat."

"No. I saved your life," Gamora snapped.

"Well, you were stupid enough to let me live."

"You let me live!"

"I don't need you always trying to beat me!"

"I'm not the one that just flew across the universe just because I wanted to win."

"Do not tell me what I want."

"I don't need to tell you what you want! It's obvious!"

"You were the one who wanted to win. And I just wanted a sister!" Nebula shouted.

Gamora immediately went silent. All the rage within her disappeared into a sympathetic feeling within her. Nebula continued, her voice betraying her.

"You were all I had. But you were the one who needed to win. Thanos pulled my eye from my head… and my brain from my skull… and my arm from my body… because of you."

Gamora remained silent and in between noises, the sound of the fire from what was left of Nebula's M-ship.

* * *

 **Ego's planet…Gamora and Peyton's room**

Peyton laid down on the couch, listening to "Brandy, You're A Fine Girl" by Looking Glass and let the music blast in her ears. Ever since Gamora stormed out, Peyton was thinking about her recent attitude. She knew Gamora was right in a way. Her adopted father, the man who raised her, still loved her as did her adopted brother. Yondu and Kraglin were all she had before her real father, but maybe Gamora was right. Had Peyton truly forgotten who she was?

Ego noticed his daughter's stress and looked at her concerned.

"You all right, daughter?" Ego asked her. Peyton looked at him and removed her headphones.

"Sort of," Peyton answered.

"I saw your girl stomp off a little earlier in quite a huff," Ego said.

"Yeah."

"It's fortuitous…you listening to this song," Ego commented.

"You know…?"

"Brandy? By Looking Glass?"

"A favorite of your mom's."

"Yeah, it was."

"One of Earth's greatest musical compositions. Perhaps it's very greatest."

"Yes!"

"Peyton, you and I, we're the sailor in that song."

Peyton looked confused at her father for a second for him to explain.

"He came on a summer's day," Ego said. Peyton smiled when he re-cited the lyrics. "Bringing gifts from far away. Like the child I put in your mother… or the freedom you brought Gamora. Brandy, you're a fine girl. What a good wife you would be. My life, my love. My lady is the sea. The sea calls the sailor back. He loves the girl, but that's not his place. The sea calls upon him as history calls upon great men. And sometimes we are deprived the pleasures of mortals."

"Well, you may not be mortal, but me…"

"No, Peyton… death will remain a stranger to both of us… as long as the light burns within the planet."

Peyton looked at her dad in disbelief. "I'm immortal?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"Really?"

"Yes! As long as the light exists."

"And I can use the light to build cool things… like how you made this whole planet?"

"It might take you a few million years of practice… before you get really good at it. But, yes!"

"What! Get ready for an 800-foot statue of Pac-Man with Skeletor and Harrison Ford!"

"You can do anything you want."

"I'm gonna make some weird shit."

"But you know, Peyton, it is a tremendous responsibility. Only we can remake the universe. Only we can take the bridle of the cosmos… and lead it to where it needs to go."

"How?"

Ego formed a plant-like light and Peyton followed. Both smiled at each other.

"Come with me." Ego said with a smile and led her away. However, they did not notice Mantis sitting there.

* * *

Mantis meanwhile, was terrified. Ego was doing it again. Manipulating another daughter, just like he did Lotus, Han, Kyra, Phineas and all the other children. No, Mantis had to save Peyton as penance for what Ego did to her older siblings. She wasn't about to let another child suffer what the others had suffered, not after she and Drax became friends and Mantis didn't want to admit it, but she thought that Drax was just like her, and developed a bit of romantic feelings for him, but he was probably more interested in just being friends. She hurriedly rushed to Drax's room and shook him awake.

"Drax! Drax!" shouted Mantis. Drax woke up and looked up at her. "We need to talk."

"Wh-what?" Drax asked.

"Listen! Ego's gotten exactly what he wanted. I should have told you earlier. I'm stupid. You are in danger. So is Peyton!" Mantis yelled.

"Peyton? In trouble?" Drax said. He stood up and turned on the light. "Explain."

Mantis gulped and immediately went to tell him the very long story.


	25. Chapter 23: The Expansion

**Chapter 23**

 **The Expansion**

"Now, you need to readjust the way you process life," Ego explained to his daughter as they walked back to the lobby where they first came from. " Everything around us, including the boy or the girl… Everything is temporary. We are forever.

"Doesn't eternity get boring?" Peyton asked.

"Not if you have a purpose, Peyton… which is why you're here. I told you how all those years ago… I had an unceasing impulse to find life. But what I did not tell you was how, when I finally did find it… it was all so… disappointing."

Peyton looked at her dad, not expecting that response.

"And that is when I came… to a profound realization. My innate desire to seek out other life… was not so that I could walk among that life. Peyton… I have found meaning." He touched onto Peyton's forehead and suddenly, Peyton's eyes immediately went to a starry black color. She gasped and saw what her father meant.

"I see it." Peyton said in awe. "Eternity!"

* * *

 **MEANWHILE…In the caverns of Ego…**

Gamora and Nebula were staring in horror as they came across a cavern and a pile of skeletons from other children.

"Oh my god," Gamora said, and saw light shine from within the lines. Nebula, even though she had killed many, had never felt so disgusted in her entire life.

"We need to get off this planet," Nebula said.

* * *

 **The** _ **Eclector**_

Finally, Rocket, Yondu, Groot and Kraglin made it to Ego's planet and returned to their normal shapes. Groot threw up as soon as Rocket and Yondu landed on their hands and knees. He looked at Rocket.

"What the hell you doing, boy?" Yondu snapped.

"I could tell by how you talked about him…" Rocket said. "This Ego is bad news. We're here to save your daughter."

"For what? Huh? For honor? For love?" Yondu said. He had enough. He just had to break through Rocket's core. Both of them where there to save Peyton, and Yondu knew that was why Rocket was so urgent to save them.

"No. I don't care about those things. I wanna save Peyton so I can prove I'm better than her! I can lord this over her forever.

Yondu began laughing hard as he got back up on his feet.

"What are you laughing at me for?" Rocket asked.

"You can fool yourself and everyone else, but you can't fool me," Yondu snapped. "I know who you are."

"You don't know anything about me loser," sneered Rocket.

"I know everything about you," Yondu continued. "I know you play like you're the meanest in the heart but actually you're the most scared of all."

"Shut-up!"

"I know you steal batteries you don't need and you push away anyone who's willing to put up with you because just a little bit of love reminds you of how big and empty that hole inside you actually is."

"I said shut-up!"

"I know them scientist what made you never gave a rat's ass about you."

"I'm serious dude!"

"Just like my own damn parents who sold me, their own little baby to slavery. Why do you think I have protected Peyton for ten years? To spare her the same fate as me, as an orphan! to spare her from being cold-hearted as me! I wanted to be a better dad for her than her biological father and spare her the fate that had befallen around her other half-siblings!" Yondu said. "I know who you are boy, because you're me."

"What kind of a pair are we?" Rocket asked.

"The kind that's about to fight a planet I reckon." Yondu answered.

"Alright, okay, good that's...wait, fight a what?" Rocket asked concerned.

* * *

Gamora was pissed. She had to find the woman she loved and they had to get out of there now. She just needed to know who these people were and what would happen to Peyton. She found Mantis near Drax and picked Mantis up by her throat and pressed her against the wall.

"WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!" Gamora screamed.

"Gamora, let her go!" Drax shouted.

"Those bodies in the caverns, WHO ARE THEY!?" Gamora roared. "What are you doing to Peyton?!"

"You're scared," Mantis said

* * *

"I call it the Expansion." Ego explained to her. Peyton looked around, still hypnotized, as the planets of the universe were displayed. "It is my purpose… and now it is yours as well.

"It's beautiful." Peyton said.

"Over thousands of years… I implanted thousands of extensions of myself… on thousands of worlds. I need to fulfill life's one true purpose… To grow and spread… covering all that exists… until everything is… Me!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Gamora grabbed onto her wrist, still scared to death out of her.

"What did she do to me?" Gamora asked.

"She already told me everything." Drax said. Gamora looked at Drax scared.

In the other room, Ego was still manipulating Peyton.

"I only had one problem," Ego continued. "A single Celestial doesn't have enough power for such an enterprise. But two Celestials… Well, now, that just might do."

* * *

Meanwhile, Mantis got up from her spot and looked at Gamora.

"The bodies in the Cavern are his children," Mantis answered.

Gamora looked at Mantis in horror. That meant that if those were Ego's children, it meant that Peyton was in more danger than she thought she was.

* * *

Peyton is still being manipulated by Peyton.

"Out of all my labors… the most beguiling was… attempting to graft my DNA with that of another species," Ego continued.

I hoped the result of such a coupling would be enough… to power the Expansion. I had your adoptive father deliver some of them to me. It broke the Ravager code, but I compensated him generously… and to ease his conscience, I said I'd never hurt them. I mean, that was true. They never felt a thing. But one after the other, they failed me. Not one of them carried the Celestial genes. Until you, Peyton. Out of all my spawn… only you carried the connection to the light."

* * *

"We have to find Peyton and we have to get out of here," Gamora said to the other Guardians.

"Ego would have her on his side by now," Mantis said.

"Then let's just take off," Nebula said.

"No," Gamora said. "She's our friend." (Gamora thought, _My first friend)_

"All you do is yell at each other," Nebula said. "You're not friends."

"No, we're not. We're family. We leave no one behind," Drax said. Gamora smiled at his nobility. He looked at Nebula. "Well except for you."

"Oh god," Nebula muttered.

* * *

"For the first time in my existence… I am truly not alone!" Ego shouted.

He noticed Peyton's face falter.

"What is it, dear?"

"My friends." Peyton answered sadly. Ego nodded in understanding.

"You see, that's the mortal in you, Peyton. We are beyond such things."

"Yes." Peyton said sadly.

"Now…"

"But my mother…"

"You said you loved my mother."

"And that I did. My river lily who knew all the words to every song that came over the radio. I returned to Earth to see her three times. And I knew if I returned a fourth… I'd never leave. The Expansion… the reason for my very existence, would be over. So, I did what I had to do. But it broke my heart to put that tumor in her head."

Peyton's starry black eyes retreated back to their normal green eyes, and her eyes went colder than they normally were.

"What?" Peyton said outraged.

"Now, all right… I know that sounds bad," Ego said. Peyton grew outraged and began firing at him. Ego stopped, looking surprised at Peyton. His human body was destroyed and most of it replaced by blue lights of like hologram. "Who in the hell do you think you are?"

" You killed my mom!" Peyton shouted.

"I tried… so hard… to find the form… that best suited you… and this is the thanks I get?" Ego said. "How dare you shoot your own father Peyton!"

"No! You're not my father. A father cares about his children, and does not go around killing their children's mother!" Peyton yelled.

"You really need to grow up!" Ego shouted. "I wanted to do this together… but I suppose you'll have to learn by spending the next thousand years as a battery!"

Peyton looked behind her and saw blue light get sent through her chest and lift her up on the ground.


	26. Chapter 24: Fathers and Daughters Vol 2

**Chapter 24: Fathers and Daughters Vol. 2**

Gamora heard the sound of her transmitter going off. Rocket finally heard their call.

"Finally," Gamora snapped. She answered her transmitter. "Rocket!"

"Keep that transmitter nearby, so I can find you, Gammy," Rocket told her. He and Peyton were the only ones who ever called Gamora by that nickname. Other than that, Gamora would kill anyone who called her "Gammy." "We're in an old piece of construction equipment Yondu once used... to slice open the Bank of A'askavaria."

"Yondu's there with you?"

"Yeah, you didn't think we're the only ones saving Peyton, do you? I mean, he is your idiotic adoptive father, after all."

"I can hear you!" Yondu shouted from the cockpit and ordered Kraglin to drop their ship onto the living planet. And Rocket was disturbed to find the planet with Ego's face. . "Look, let's talk about our feelings later, especially that Green girl you're talking to. We've got a kid to save!"

Gamora and Rocket rolled their eyes.

"Rocket, be careful. Ego is unhinged," Gamora said.

"We know. Get ready!" Rocket yelled at his friend as they made their way into the planet's atmosphere.

Peyton was so weakened after the entire ordeal with her father. Ego saw the Walkman she always had in her possession. However, Ego took the music box and heard the next lyrics of "Brandy, You're a Fine Girl." He looked at Peyton.

"My love and my lady is the sea," Ego recited the lyrics. "Peyton, this is the sea."

With one swift move, he crushed Peyton's Walkman and her headphones.

"No," Peyton said, but her voice was too tired to yell. Her father's tentacle continued to ruin her entire body. Suddenly, Drax kicked down the door, with Nebula, Mantis and Drax were standing there. Just at that moment, the glass to Ego's sanctuary, shattered. Yondu looked down at the man currently hurting his daughter. Nobody, not even someone like Ego, ever hurt his little girl!

"HEY THERE, JACKASS!" Yondu shouted, man, he wanted to say that for the past ten years.

After Yondu landed his ship on Ego, the tentacle through Peyton's chest immediately disappeared. Drax, Nebula and Mantis rushed onto the ship. Gamora hurriedly rushed over to Peyton and put her arm over Gamora's shoulders. Peyton collapsed on the ground, exhausted.

"I told you something didn't feel right," Gamora said.

"I told you so." Peyton said with an annoyed look on her face. "Just what I need to hear right now."

"Well, I came back, didn't I?"

"Because there's an unspoken thing."

"There is no unspoken thing," Gamora said. Suddenly, Peyton nearly fell to her knees, but Gamora caught her and placed an arm right under Peyton's legs. .

"Peyton, it's alright. I've got you, " Gamora said. She swung the shorter woman up and carried her bridal style making her way to the ship. Peyton grunted, a bit surprised at the woman's strength. However, this was the woman who could pick up a 200 ton laser engine from an M-ship we are talking about.

What are you doing? You could've killed us all!

"Uh...Thank you, Rocket?" The obviously not a raccoon offered up.

"We had it under control," Drax said.

"We did not,"Mantis said. " That is only an extension... of his true self. He will be back soon."

Gamora entered the ship and put Peyton down. The seventeen-year-old girl looked at Nebula.

"What's Smurfette doing here?" Peyton said.

"Whatever I need to do to get a damn ride home," Nebula hissed.

"She tried to murder me!" Rocket cried.

"I saved you, you stupid fox!" Nebula snapped.

"He's not a fox," Gamora sneered, giving her sister a deadly glare.

"I am Groot," Groot said. (Or a raccoon either.)

" I'm not a raboon, either," Rocket shouted.

"I am Groot," Groot said.

"Raccoon. Whatever," Rocket said, rolled his eyes.

"How do we kill a Celestial?" Drax wondered.

"There's a center to him. His brain, his soul, whatever it is... Some sort of protective shell," Peyton said. Mantis knew what she was talking about.

"It's in the caverns below the surface."

Peyton climbed up the stairs where she noticed a very familiar figure. She only knew one blue man with a red fin anywhere. It was Yondu.

"Dad?" Peyton said.

Peyton buckled up next to her adopted father and began hotwiring the controls.

"Thrusters are out," Yondu informed her. He didn't have time to happily embrace his daughter. They were all being nearly killed by a maniac who just tried to hurt his daughter and use her as a battery. Now, these were one of the reasons why he didn't give his daughter away.

"Guess I should be glad I was a skinny little girl," Peyton said. "Otherwise, you'd have delivered me to this maniac."

"You still reckon that's the reason I kept you around, you idiot?" Yondu shouted at her. She still believed that after all this time?

"Well it's one of them. Besides, that's what you told me, you old doofus."

"Once I figured out what happened to them other kids... I wasn't just gonna hand you over," Yondu said.

"You said you were gonna eat me."

"That was being funny!"

"Not to me! besides, you beat up all my friends!"

"Only to keep you from doing something stupid with them!"

"You people have issues, " Rocket called up.

"Of course I have issues," said Peyton. She lined up to see her bio dad reform in an appearance that looked like Drax's. "That's my freakin' father!"

Peyton and Yondu tried flying up but Peyton took control and dived down.

"Peyton, what are you doing?" Yondu asked. "We should be going up!"

"We can't, Daddy!" Peyton said to her adoptive father. "Ego wants to eradicate the universe as we know it. We have to kill him. Rocket!"

"Got it, kid!" Rocket yelled. He pushed several buttons, activating the lasers on the sides of the ship. It cut through Ego 's hard core. Peyton was having the time of her life with her old man. Her real old man. She yelled a wohoo as both of them raced down the rocky slide.

"So, we're saving the galaxy again?

"I guess." Peyton answered

"Awesome!" Rocket shouted. "We're really gonna be able to jack up our prices... if we're two-time galaxy savers."

"I seriously can't believe that's where your mind goes," Peyton said.

"It was just a random thought, kid," Rocket yelled. "I thought we were friends. Of course, I care about the planets, and the buildings... and all the animals on the planets."

"And the people," Peyton added.

"Meh." Rocket said. Peyton rolled her eyes.

"The crabby puppy is so cute," Mantis cried. "He makes me wanna die!"


	27. Chapter 25: Battle on Ego's Planet

**Chapter 25: Battle on Ego's Planet**

Meanwhile, up above Ego's planet, Kraglin sat on top , sang to his sister's music. He just hoped his adoptive father and sister below were doing alright. However, he saw the Sovereign spaceships coming in. Quickly, he went up to his communicator.

"Cap'n," Kraglin said through his COMM link. However, there was no link. "Capn!" Suddenly, with no other choice, Kraglin called Yondu something he hadn't done in a long time. "Dad! Come in!" However, no response came from his father or his sister.

* * *

The Udontas were both sitting in the cockpit, making their way to Ego's core. However, Yondu and Peyton could not hear Kraglin trying to get through to them.

"So Dad, where is the rest of the crew?" Peyton asked, looking curiously at Yondu.

"Peyton, now is not the time!" Yondu yelled at her.

"Dad, what happened to the others?" Peyton asked, her eyes burning with questions.

"Not now, girlie!"

"Dad! What happened to the other Ravagers?!"

"They're all dead!" Yondu shouted. Peyton's mouth dropped. Sure, most of them treated her like shit, but only her father, brother, and two other Ravagers were ones who truly cared about her, so did half of the entire crew.

"No, not Tullk? Oblo? Even all the other Ravagers?"

The only Ravagers who treasured her. Yondu looked at her with a nod, and Peyton could tell her old man wanted to cry, but he already wasted all their tears many years ago. If they were all dead, then that meant...Oh, shit, her brother!

"Dad, where is Kraglin?" Peyton asked. He didn't answer her. "Dad! What happened to my brother?!

"Will you relax? He is alive!" Yondu told her. Peyton sighed in relief, but the other two ravagers came into mind. "Now, be a good girl and tell me what Ego wants you here for."

"Cap'n?" they heard Kraglin talk through the speakers. However, Yondu couldn't hear him.

"He needs my genetic connection to the light to help destroy the universe," Peyton answered. "He tried to teach me how to control the power."

"So, could you?" Yondu asked.

"A little. I made a ball."

"A ball?"

"I thought as hard as I could, Daddy," Peyton snapped. "It was all that I could come up with. Besides, growing up by you it was more of a practice open fire than catching balls with you."

"So. You're lucky .Now you're an ace pilot." Peyton rolled her eyes. "So, you 'thought'?" Yondu said to his adoptive daughter. "You think when I make this arrow fly, I use my head?"

"That's it," Mantis said, coming up to the opening Yondu and Peyton inadvertently created. "That's Ego's core."

"That ore is thick, Rocket," Peyton warned her friend. "Be careful." "

"I got it covered, Pey," Rocket said.

"We must hurry," Mantis said. "It will not take Ego long to find us."

"Keep it steady." Rocket told Yondu and Peyton as they were floating over the area.

"We drill into the center, we kill him!" Peyton shouted.

"Captain?" Kraglin said. Both father and daughter looked at the speakers.

"Kraglin!" Peyton shouted. "It is so good to hear your voice again, bro."

However, she was still too busy drilling through the whole with Rocket for them to have a conversation right now.

"Hey sis, we'll remember this moment later. But right now I've got somethin' important to tell ya."

"What is it, Kraglin?" Yondu asked.

"Hey, remember that Ayesha chick?" Kraglin asked.

"You made a deal with Ayesha?" Peyton shouted outraged at her father.

"So did you! And I was going to tell you..." Yondu began.

"You have a lot of explaining to do after this is over, Dad," Peyton said. "You too Kraglin."

"Please, can we just hold off the family feud right now!" Rocket shouted.

"Seriously this is important!" Kraglin shouted. However, Yondu looked and noticed the Sovereign fleet coming closer.

"Aw, hell!" Yondu shouted. Peyton saw that her father was talking about the fleet coming closer. Peyton and her father jammed onto their ship and were continuously chased by the Sovereign. However, Gamora, Drax and Mantis landed gracefully on their feet. Everyone realized that the Battle on Ego's planet had begun.

* * *

 **The Quadrant's Dispatch**

* * *

"Something's wrong," Peyton said after Rocket wouldn't fire at Ego's core. Yondu grabbed onto her wrist.

"Peyton," Yondu said. She looked at her dad. Peyton saw that he was trying to say something. So, he decided to speak his mind. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about your biological father. Understand that everything I've done to ensure your safety, I've done for yours and Kraglin's. I just wanted to protect you from the evils of this world, but I couldn't. I'm proud of you, daughter."

"Dad, apologize later," Peyton said. She escaped her father's grasp.

"Be careful! Yondu yelled. Peyton looked at Yondu.

"I will," she asserted him and rushed out the door. She had to find out what was going on with Rocket.

"Why aren't you firing the lasers?" Peyton asked.

"They blew out the generator,kid," Rocket said. He ran to his bag, taking out a detonator. "I think I packed a small detonator."

"A detonator is worthless without explosives," Nebula said.

"Well, we got these," Rocket said, showing the anulax batteries. Peyton rolled her eyes. Who knew the thing Rocket stole ended up being their solution to this problem?

"Is that thing strong enough to kill Ego? " Peyton asked incredulously.

"If it is, it'll cause a chain reaction… throughout his entire nervous system."

"Meaning what?"

"The entire planet will explode. We'll have to get out of here fast. I rigged a timer."

Peyton and Rocket activated two Aero rigs and flew out to the passageway to Ego's core.

* * *

 **In Ego's Core**

* * *

 **R** ocket and Peyton landed onto the passageway to the brain area of Star-Lady's father. Peyton took a flashlight and pointed it in the direction of where they needed to go.

The metal's too thick," Rocket said. "For the bomb to work, we'd actually need to place it on Ego's core. "And our fat butts ain't gonna fit through those tiny holes. Not even your small body can go through, Pey."

Peyton sighed with a hiss while de-activating her mask.

"Now what will we do?" Peyton asked.

"I am Groot!" said Groot. Peyton and Rocket looked down at him.

"No, Groot, you are not going down there!" Peyton shouted.

"I am Groot"

"Yeah, we know there is no more options, but its too dangerous!" Rocket said.

"I am Groot."

"He says he's using your dad's 'skinny and fitting into tight places' motto, kid, and asking you to give him a chance," Rocket said.

Peyton sighed.

"Alright, but at least go with him half-way," Peyton said.

"Unbelievable!" Rocket whispered. Taking Groot up onto his shoulder, he made his way to where the core would be and mocked Peyton. "Rocket, do this. Rocket, do that."

She rolled her eyes and took out her guns.

"What a day!" Peyton sighed before she floated up and fired at the oncoming Sovereign fleet.


	28. Chapter 26 Battle in Ego's core

**Chapter 26: Battle in Ego's core**

The battle raged on as Peyton kept killing all the robots that were attacking where Groot and Rocket were currently located at. However, Rocket found it hard because Groot didn't understand which button not to push Heard Rocket yelling at Groot to get it right. She flew over to them.

"Calm down. You're making him nervous," Peyton shouted.

"Shut up and give me tape, kid," Rocket said. "I wanna put tape over the death button."

"I dont have any tape. But I'll go check. " Peyton flew away. From inside, he heard Peyton yell at their friends. "Yo, Nebula, you got any tape?"

"No! " Nebula yelled.

"Dad, do you have any tape?"

"Hell no."

"Gamora? Do you have ... do you have any tape?"

"Why would I have tape?" Gamora shouted. Rocket rolled his eyes.

"Mantis...ugh... never mind. Drax do you have any tape?" No answer. "Yes, scotch tape would work!" Long silence. "Then why did you ask if scotch tape would work if you don't have any?!" She flew back to Rocket. "No one has tape."

"Not a single person has tape?" Rocket shouted, looking back at the kid.

"Nope! Besides Rocket, you have priceless batteries and an atomic bomb in your bag!" Peyton shouted. "IF ANYBODY'S GONNA HAVE TAPE, IT'S YOU!"

"That's exactly my point! I have to do EVERYTHING!" Rocket shouted.

"You are wasting a lot of time here!" Peyton shouted. She came back down and noticed Groot was gone. "Rocket, where's Groot?"

The duo looked back and saw the direction he was going.

"Groot, come back!" However, Groot wasn't listening to his mother….wait, did Peyton just think she was Groot's Mother?

"We're all gonna die." Rocket said.

"He is so grounded. "

Peyton heard sounds of Yondu yelling. The girl quickly panicked and rushed out of the caverns and flew back up into the ship.

"Dad!" Peyton yelled. She quickly got up to her father and Nebula.

"Peyton get out of here now!" Yondu yelled at her. "We're doomed without that generator. They'll kill you!"

Nebula groaned at the farther/ daughter mushy stuff and didn't need to die today. She hooked herself up with the metals in her fake arm.

"Nebula what are you doing?"

"Saving your life, Blondie." She let the generator cords get hooked up. "Besides, Gamora would literally kill me if something bad happens to you. Idiots in love."

She finished hooking up the cords.

"This is gonna hurt." Yondu warned her

"Promises, promises, " Nebula hissed.

Yondu looked at Peyton. "You might wanna stand back."

She did as she was told. Yondu hit the button as nebula got electrocuted. She began to light up like a lightning storm. All around them, the ships got destroyed. Peyton sighed in relief. However she smelled something.

"Do you guys smell that?" Peyton asked.

"Oh no, something spilled,"Yondu shouted. Everyone looked in alarm. Yondu quickly whistled, Nebula broke down the window and Peyton quickly activated her jetpack as the ship exploded.

 **Line division**

Down below, Gamora, Drax, and Mantis were on the ground, where the trio fell earlier in the middle of the battle. However, gamora looked up to see the ship blow up.

"Peyton!" Gamora shouted, worried for her safety. Nebula landed in front. "No..."

She began sobbing. However, the blue alien woman looked up, as did Gamora. She sighed in relief when she saw Yondu and Peyton glide down. She looked up at her father and noticedhis similarity between himself an d a certain character. She laughed a little bit

"What?" Yondu asked.

"You look like Mary Poppins," Peyton answered.

"Is he cool?"

"Yeah, Dad. He's cool, " Peyton answered.

She looked down at her friends and Gamora was relieved to see her companion alive. The entire group stood together, watching triumphantly as Ego's planet began falling and Rocket came to join them. However, a flying space debree landed on top of Mantis.

"Mantis, look out!" Drax yelled, but he was too late for the warning. He quickly went over to Mantis and brought her in his arms, now holding her in a bridal style. "She's just unconscious."

Peyton quickly ran over to Rocket.

"Rocket, how long until the bomb goes off?"

In the unlikely event that Groot doesn't kill us all… about six minutes," Rocket told her.

"Kraglin, we need the quadrant for an extraction," Yondu told his son. "T-minus five minutes."

"Aye, Captain," Kraglin said and began descending down.

"Somebody's gotta be up top when Kraglin arrives," Peyton said. She took off her Aero Rig and passed it onto Drax's back. "Drax, take Mantis."

She put it on his back and watched him fly away, while screaming, "Ow! My nipples!"

Peyton and her friends looked behind to see Ego was turning back on, Mantis' spell no longer on top of him. Suddenly the ground disappeared from underneath them and suddenly, Gamora and Nebula fell through the cracks.

"Gamora! Nebula!" Peyton shouted at the two women. However, they were already ten feet down under. It was as if she wanted to jump off. She quickly got to the cliff and went to jump.

"Peyton no!" Yondu shouted and quickly put his arm around her.

"Dad, let go of me!" Peyton shouted.

"No, Gamora and Nebula will be fine," Yondu told her.

"No, Daddy, you don't understand!" Peyton shouted, trying to fight against her adoptive father. "Let go!"

"No!" yondu yelled. He turned her around. "You've already left me once, and you're not gonna leave me again!"

"No! You don't understand, Daddy," Peyton said. She looked into her father's red eyes. "She is more than a friend. I love her!"

Yondu was lost for words, not sure if he heard his daughter right or not. They heard Ego yell her name and was going to reform in his human avatar at any moment. Their greatest fear of the battle turning on them was coming upon them.

Line division

Nebula and Gamora continued falling down the abyss.

However, as they fell, Nebula latched one of th hooks on her prosthetic arm onto the side of a cliff and quickly grabbed onto her sister's wrist. The two sisters looked at each other for a moment as the hate in Nebula's eyes and misery both daughters of Thanos faced through all those years of hard training in upbringing finally faded. With all her strength nebula threw her sister on to the higher platform. Gamora looked at her sister with thankfulness and curiosity as Nebula ascended the flat surface. She rolled her eyes.

"Get over it," she hissed. While it appeared Nebula didn't care that she just saved her sisters life, Nebula felt otherwise.

" We have to go back on top with the others," Gamora shouted at her sister.  
"Why are you doing this, Gamora? " Nebula asked her older sister.

"Doing what ? You're risking your life, everyday for Blondie up there and stay by her side very second of the way. You refuse to abandon her! Why?"

"Really? You want to have a sisterly talk about my relationship with Peyton now!?"

"I know you love Peyton, Gamora! I see the way both of you look at each other, like a love struck idiot. Do you love her?"

"Fine, I'm in love with Peyton. You happy?" Gamora yelled. They saw one of the columns growing. "Come on!"

Nebula and Gamora quickly jumped on the column as it made its way to the surface.


	29. Chapter 27: Love Gives Us Strength

**Chapter 27**

Peyton quickly began firing at her father's light tentacles. Ego wanted her friends, dad and brother and the entire universe dead, and she couldn't let that happen.

"Peyton soon we will be all that's left in the universe. So, stop pissing me off!" Ego shouted as his daughter had fallen to the ground. Peyton looked and saw that the Yaka Arrow her dad bore for twenty years destroyed at her biological father's hands. Rocket and her dad were down. It was heartbreaking to see all her friends fall to her father's hands just like her mother.

"Why are you doing this to your father, Peyton?" Ego asked his daughter who was getting furious by the minute.

"You're not my father, you never were!" Peyton shouted outrageously. She was down on her knees, looking down at the pieces of her mask and her quad blasters.

"You are you are my flesh and blood, Peyton!" Ego yelled. Peyton looked at Yondu and Rocket who were being piled by a pile of rocks and felt Gamora in pain.

"You're my father, biologically, but my real dad has been right in front of me this entire time!" Peyton shouted. I want no part of this scheme of yours."

"I told you I do not want to do this alone. You cannot give up what the universe has bestowed upon you!" His plan was in motion as he injected the tentacles in his daughter's chest and her bruised and cut face. " Why? What could life possibly have to offer you."

"I don't use my head to control the arrow, girl! I use my heart..." Yondu shouted but the rocks covered her family.

Then, the memories flowed through her.

Suddenly, it all came to Peyton, all the memories that kept her going since the very first day...

 _Gamora and Peyton are on Nowhere, listening to the beautiful melody of Marvin Gaye's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough."_

 _..._

 _Peyton and Drax are laughing with each other after Peyton hears a fond story of Drax and his daughter._

 _..._

 _Rocket, Groot and Peyton laugh as they fly together. Both take turns flying._

 _Suddenly, there is a fond memory of Peyton and Meredith and both sing to "Brandy, you're a Fine Girl by Looking Glass._

 _..._

 _Next, Yondu teaching her how to fire for the first time and giving her a one and only first father-daughter dance_

 _..._

 _Then, Kraglin is helping Peyton with her very first Ravager garb, then Tullk and Oblo tossing her back and forth before Yondu tells them to knock it off and orders them to his baby girl down as he drags Peyton to his room and gives her a look over for injuries._

Everything came to Peyton now. She had her real family all along. Suddenly, she turned the tables and Peyton felt the power growing on inside her. As Peyton grew stronger and healthier, her father was growing weaker.

"You bastard, you shouldn't have killed my mom, or my dad and our friends, and you sure as hell shouldn't have squished my Walkman, you son of a bitch."

She took up the strength and continued to hit on her father as "the Chain" played through her mind. As the fight continued, Yondu broke through the piles of rock growing on top of him; Drax was able to get out of the quicksand and ran to the ship where Peyton's brother was waiting for them. Finally, Nebula and Gamora took strong breaths as the tentacle of lights disappeared. The sisters quickly ran to the ship as Groot made his way to Ego's brain.

Rocket quickly flew over to the hole in Ego's core and shouted, "Groot hurry up! I don't know how long Peyton can keep Ego distracted!"

Groot quickly put the bomb on the shell of Ego's brain and pressed the right button and quickly ran like hell. Rocket quickly put his hand through and grabbed onto Groot.

"You did good, kid, you did good," Rocket said with a smile and put Groot on top of his left shoulder.

"I am Groot!" Groot said.

"I can't believe you just called the kid 'Mama'!" Rocket said. Groot looked harshly at him. "And yes, she will be proud of you."

He just hoped they'd live to see Peyton alright.

* * *

Peyton, meanwhile, was doing a very good job, continuously striking back and forth. However, Ego pounded her against the wall a copule of times. Peyton was too distracted in fighting her biological father that she didn't notice all her friends were escaping from the places Ego tried to kill them at.

Yondu could feel something inside of him stir. He sensed his little girl was kicking asses and taking names, just like he taught her.

Rocket and Groot flew over to Yondu, who turned to look at the duo of best friends.

"Yondu, we're about to blow!" Rocket shouted.

"Get to the ship!" Yondu shouted.

"Not without the kid," Rocket shouted.

"You gotta take care of the twig!" Yondu shouted.

"Not without you," Rocket said.

Yondu looked reluctant to Rocket. Yondu couldn't leave Peyton to her fate with Ego. He had already failed Peyton's older siblings. Kyra, Han, Phineas, Lotus, and Victor and several others began rushing through his mind, poor sweet innocent children who were stabbed in the back by their own father. No, Yondu was not going to fail another child he once knew. He was NOT going to fail his daughter, nor taint her half-siblings' memories.

"I haven't done nothing right my whole life, rat. I have failed Peyton once before, and I can't fail her again" Yondu said, thinking of the children from the past. "You gotta give me this."

Rocket reluctantly nodded and went to fly off. However, he grabs onto two things.

"A space suit and an aero-rig," Rocket said and placed one of each in Yondu's hand. "I only have one of each." Yondu nodded and took both of them. Rocket was about to fly away, but Groot stopped him from going any furhter.

"I am Groot," the baby flora colossus said.

"What was that?!" Yondu shouted.

Rocket sighed and smiled.

"He said 'Welcome to the frickin' guardians of the Galaxy, only he didn't use frickin'," Rocket said with a smile.

Rocket floated up into space as Groot waved. Yondu smiled fondly and raised a hand.

"Bye twig," Yondu said, never dropping that smile. As soon as Rocket and Groot were out of ear-range of Yondu, Rocket looked sternly at Groot.

"You know, Peyton and I are going to have a serious discussion with you about your language," Rocket said with a bit of a smile to it as well. "And be lucky I didn't tell Yondu you called him 'Grandpa'."

In return, Groot just cave an apologetic smile as Rocket rolled his eyes and made his way to the ship.


	30. Ch 28: Fathers and Daughters Vol 3

**Father and Daughter, Vol 3**

Gamora was attending to an ailing Mants, stroking her on her hair to comfort the unconscious girl. However, she stopped when she and Nebula saw Rocket was flying in, with Groot on his shoulder. However, she saw no Peyton or no Yondu. That was when Gamora grew worried.

"Where's Peyton?" Gamora asked urgently, looking back and forth, but Rocket wouldn't answer her. "Rocket, where is she? Rocket. Rocket, look at me! Where is she?" He looked at the countdown, and saw it was hopeless for the kid or Yondu to appear.

He shook at the skeptical thought. Groot pointed back. Gamora's eyes went wide.

"No. I'm not leaving without her," Gamora said. She took one of the guns near bye.

"Gamora wait!" Rocket shouted.

However, Gamora was this close to going out. He quickly grabbed onto his gun and tasered her.

"Sorry, Gammy, but we've got re-inforcements coming. I can't afford to lose friends today."

He looked up to the hatchet.

"Kraglin, go!" shouted Rocket.

Kraglin reluctantly put it on.

"Wait...Is Peyton back?" Drax cried, worrying for the young woman, however, Kraglin did not answer. "He grabbed onto the button. "Rocket, where's Peyton? Rocket, where's Peyton? Rocket! Where's Peyton? Where's Peyton?"

"Quit your yammering, help is on the way!" Rocket shouted, getting up to the crockpit.

"We can't just leave the child or Yondu to their fates, " Drax said.

"We're not, stupid. Kraglin and I contacted one of Yondu's old friends."

"However, they didn't believe me at first, Kraglin admitted.

"Until I convinced them that if they didn't come here, then Yondu and Peyton would die."

"And who would that be?" Drax asked curiously.

"Stakar Ogord," Rocket and Kraglin answered together.

* * *

Peyton was exhausted as they landed onto the platform. Ego saw the bomb and attempted to get to it.

"No, we need to stop it!" Ego shouted, but Peyton threw her father down and began punching him. "Stop. Stop. Listen to me! You are a goddess. If you kill me...you'll be just like everybody else."

"What's so wrong with that?"

"No!" Ego shouted. Suddenly, the man crumbled to dust as the world around Peyton fell. She grieved for the death of her father and tears came down her face. He was never the idealistic father, but she felt his passing in her heart and tears continued to fall down her face. However, Peyton felt it all in one rush. She was picked off the ground by her father. He had her arm around his shoulder. Peyton looked towards her father.

"He may have been your father, kid, but he wasn't your daddy," said Yondu. "But I guess you know that now"

"Yeah," said Peyton.

"I'm sorry I didn't do none of it right at the beginning," Yondu admitted, holding his duaghter close as they escaped. "I would do it over. If I could save your brothers or sisters, or if I had a chance to raise you again, I would do anything to make you happy again. I'm damn lucky you're my little girl."

"And I'm damn lucky you're my dad, and Kraglin is my brother," Peyton said. Yondu cupped her cheek, trying to memorize her face. Suddenly, he slapped a suit. Peyton realized what her father was doing.

"Daddy, no...you can't," Peyton were in the vaccuum of space. and her father began suffering. Quickly, Peyton grabbed onto the button of the activation on her helmet. She quickly disposed of it and placed it onto her father's head, clinging on tight as they floated onto space. There was no way that her father was going to leave her, not this time. Peyton looked to see another M-ship she didn't recognize as the beam brought her and Yondu in. Quickly, Peyton gasped for air and stole the helmet from her father. They were lying down on the ship, just like how Gamora and Peyton held each other when they were brought on the Eclector for the first time. However, Yondu wasn't moving a muscle.

"Dad! Come on dad, wake up!" Peyton shouted and shook her father desperately, but he still didn't make a move.

She was getting more desperate by the minute and had to wake him up. Peyton just had to wake her father up.

"Peyton?" Yondu said weakly, and noticed she still had the space suit on.

"Daddy, come on, stay awake, I need you," she said and continued to shake her father up more and more. "Come on daddy, I need you. Wake up!"

Suddenly, a group of Ravagers came in, and they were garbed in blue. Peyton looked scared and quickly huddled over her father protectively.

"Who are you, what do you want?" Peyton shouted, looking more exclusively at the leader.

"Gentlemen, stand down," said the man. Peyton looked and could have sworn he looked like Sylvester Stallone, just like how her dad had a striking resemblance towards Kurt Russell.

"Who the hell are you people?!" she demanded again. She had no weapons to defend herself.

"Oh, she is definitely Yondu's little girl, Captain," said a crystal man. "Did a good job of raising her, I'll say."

"Will someone please tell me who the hell you guys are?!" Peyton shouted.

"Calm down, little lady, we aint' gonna hurt you or your father," said the leader.

"Will you please tell me who the hell you people are?!"

"Welcome aboard the _Starhawk_ , kid," said the Sylvester Stallone-look alike. "I'm Stakar Ogord, also known as, your adoptive grandfather."

Peyton's mouth shot open. The last thing she heard was Stakar Ogord's shouts to get medical attention as the world faded to black.

 **Did you guys really think I would kill Yondu off? Be honest if you knew he was going to live or not.**

 **Yes, I thought it would be funny if Peyton questioned her bio-dad's appearance at the end of this chapter rather than their first meeting and thought that Peyton qould question why there is a Sylvester Stallone lookalike in front of her.**

 **Next chapter: everyone recovering from Ego's planet on Xandar.**

 **It will be the last chapter of the second Guardians of the Galaxy film. The next part will begin with "Infinity War". however, if the Guardians have a small role in the next _Avengers_ film, then the third part will be included in here. **


	31. Ch 29: A Family at Last

Chapter 31

A Family At Last

Peyton woke up to the sound of someone tapping. She groaned and looked to see Gamora sitting there.

"Gamora?" Peyton said. Gamora looked up.

"Payton, you're awake," Gamora said.

"Yeah, obvious…ly!" peyton cried when Gamora, for the first time ever, came in and hugged her harder than she realized.

"I'm sorry," said Gamora, and gently released her. Peyton looked around and saw the badages on arm. There used to be wrappings on her torso, but she had seen that too had been taken off.

"What happened?" Peyton asked

"You were wounded. How did Ego hurt you?"

Peyton laughed cruelly.

"Well, let's just say, I turned into a kick-ass version of Pac-Man, and I kept pounding him, hence the broken bone And as for my heart, let's just say, it died when he told me he killed my mother and when he squished my Walkman."

Gamora put her hand on Peyton's shoulder.

"Then I'm sorry your mother's gift was ruined, Pey, I really am," Gamora said.

"Wait, where is my dad? Where's Kraglin?" Peyton asked.

"They'll be back soon," Gamora promised.

In came Rocket, Groot, and Drax.

"Quill, you have got to be the dumbest kid in the entire universe!" Rocket shouted at her, but it wasn't out of malice. No it was only a joke. Peyton shrivelled back. "Seriously kid, takin' on a Celestial by yourself! Ha! And I thought I hadn't seen at all."

"Gee, a simple, glad to see you're alright would have sufficed," Peyton said, rolling her eyes. Groot snuggled right up to her. Peyton smiled and pat him on the head.

A few days later, Peyton learned that they were on the quadrant. However, Kraglin and Yondu still had not returned from their trip to the Starhawk. Peyton sat down one day, reading and weaping, when she heard a familiar voice.

"Pey!" Kraglin yelled. The girl looked up to her elder brother, as he approached her.

"Kraglin," Peyton said, standing up. Kraglin laughed and put her into a choking embrace. He spun her around before setting her down.

"We thought you were never going to wake up," Kraglin said, hugging Peyton very close. They had never been this close to hugging before, okay, they had been, but it was mostly because Kraglin would put his arm around her shoulder to make her see what he was thinking.

"What is hell's name is goin' on over 'ere?" Yondu said.

"Um…" the Udonta siblings said together. "A hug?"

Peyton felt tenseness in her eyes, as if she wanted to let a tear or two down her cheeks.

"You are okay," Peytra said, no longer loss for saw the tears in her eyes, and the sadness she was feeling. It looked like she needed another one too.

"Alright. Come here, darlin'," Yondu said. He pulled his adopted daughter into a hug. At first, Peyton was very confused, and didn't dare move a muscle. However, Peyton couldn't help but put her arms around her father's waist and hug him back. Father and daughter were reunited at last.

Yondu led Peyton down the hall to his room.

"What are we doing down here?" Peyton said.

"Daddy?" Peyton asked her father. Yondu brought out something out for Peyton.

"It's a Zune," Yondu said. He gently placed it in her hand along with a pair of headphones. "I know its no Walkman, or Awesome Mixtape from your mother, but this device has nearly 300 songs."

"300 songs?!" Peyton nearly yelled. However, she had to calm herself. Yondu lightly chuckled.

"Consider it a seventeenth birthday present. Thought if this whole Guardian thing hadn't worked out, or if you just missed home, you'd come back to here one day. And, this was gonna be a welcome home present."

"Dad, don't you see," Peyton told her father, "wherever you, Kraglin, and my friends are with me, I am home."

"Oh I know you are, baby girl," Yondu told her. "And I am home too."

Peyton smiled as she looked through the Zunes. She knew "Father and Son" referred to a dad and a message to his son, but it could work for a father in this case. The first lyrics made her cry. Yondu reached up for her. Peyton gave one of the earbuds to her father.

Just as they were dancing to the tunes on Peyton's new Zune player, Peyton heard the sound of fireworks in the background. She looked behind to see the multiple colors flash throughout the sky.

"Daddy, look," Peyton pointed at the sky and Yondu looked up to see the fireworks. He put his arm around her shoulder as they watched them explode.

"What is it?" Peyton asked.

"Its a Ravager Funeral," Yondu answered. "For the men lost during those who were loyal to me. Peyton and Yondu went on deck, seeing the fireworks explode. They took off their headphones and Peyton went close, watching them explode into the night sky. Gamora, Groot, Mantis, and Drax all entered.

"Where's Nebula?" Peyton asked. Gamora had a tear in her eye.

"She left," Gamora said. They watched in awe. Peyton looked at Gamora, who was smiling at her friend.

"What?" Peyton asked.

"Just some unspoken thing," Gamora answered. Peyton looked at Gamora and reached out for her hand. Gamora smiled and put an arm around Peyton's shoulder, pulling her close."

"It's beautiful," Mantis said.

"Yes, and so are you, on the outside," Drax said. Kraglin and Yondu were standing just behind Gamora and Peyton.

"Looks like Peyton's growing up," Kraglin said. Yondu looked back and smiled.

I got my eyes on that one. She treats Peyton well, but if she hurts Peyton, then she'll wish she was never born."

Of course, Yondu didn't meamn to kill Gamora, but he would harm her if she tried anything funny that would hurt Peyton's feelings. Groot yawned, he was growing tired, and immediately fell asleep in Drax's arms. Rocket, was looking up, tears in his eyes and remembering Yondu's words from earlier: they were the same, and Rocket was proud to be a family with a crew of misfits.

Finally, there the guardians stood, a family at last.


	32. Epilogue: Present Day

**Epilogue 1**

Peyton was dancing to "I Will Survive," ignoring everything around her, until Rocket shouted for her.

"Pey!" Rocket yelled he ran into her room, and Peyton shut off the music "Our son did it again! He won't put down that game. Maybe you should talk him out of it.

" Oh not again," Peyton snapped.

She walked down the steps to Groot, who was about the age of a teenager. His room was a mess again. She stepped on some vines.

"Ugh, kid. Seriously? You gotta clean up your room. It's a complete mess."

"I am Groot. (You're boring Mom,)," Groot responded.

"Don't you dare call your mother 'boring'," Peyton scolded her adoptive son. " I am not boring. You're boring. You know what's boring? Sitting there, playing that mind-numbing game. What's boring is me tripping over your vines every day! I'm not boring!"

"I am Groot," her adopted son mocked her.

"And now I know how Yondu feels," Peyton said in exasperation. Just hoped this family would change one day.

* * *

 _ **19 Years Later...2018...**_ _ **Present Day**_

The guardians were flying around on their ship. It had been a very long time since they saved Xandar and the universe from Ronan and Ego. They travelled differently ina ship, that Peyton called "the Benatar" after a singer her mom liked. They were all singing to one of her songs, when Peyton saw her girlfriend Gamora, singing. Mantis and Drax were kissing each other again. She just couldn't believe that they had actually gotten together. Mantis was eighteen when they met her and Drax was twenty five. Now, they were old enough and had a relationship that ended in them marrying each other. The times were changing. Groot was playing his video game while Kraglin and Yondu were playing a strange game. Suddenly, two men landed right onto their windshield.

"Ah Wipers! Get it off!" Rocket shouted.

"No wait, it's two men. They're still alive!"

"Rocket, Groot, them in here!"

"Yes ma'am!" Rocket shouted. He went up and dropped both the blond haired and black hair men. The guardians helped the muscular men inside the Milano.

"Who is the hell is he?" said Yondu.

"How are they still alive?" Said Kraglin.

"No idea." Peyton said. She looked at Manrtis. "Hey, sis, can you wake him up. "

"I can, Peyton, " Mantis said. After the battle on Ego, Peyton and Mantis realized that they were technically adoptive sisters and started referring to each other as such. Mantis walked over to the unconscious man and pressed one of each hand against the men's forehead.

"Wake," Mantis said gently. Suddenly. The men gasped and looked at them in they eye.

"Who the hell are you guys?" the blond man said.

"Might ask you and sir glares a lot the same question, Rocky, " Peyton said. Everyone looked at her confused. "Long story. Who are you?"

"You first," said the black-haired guy.

"My name is Peyton Quill, Star-Queen, used to be known by Star Lady." She said, gesturing to them as they looked around The creature whose not a fox's name is Rocket, the walking tree is Groot, guy with the red fins my dad Yondu Udonta, girl with green skin is my girlfriend Gamora, that's Drax, my brother Kraglin and my sister Mantis. Were known as the guardians of the Galaxy. Now, who are you. "

"Well, Lady Quill, " said the blonde man. "My name is Thor Odinson, the king of Adgard. And this is my brother, Prince Loki,And the universe is in grave danger."

 _ **The end. Now, headed for Infinity War, but it won't come out until late November. Thank you to those who were being patient for this chapter to come out. I couldn't update because I was too busy with finals this week,**_

 _ **The second half will be called second book will be titled "Hooked on a Feeling: Road to War, a re-telling of Avengers and Avengers 4**_


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